Dr Dilip Mahalanabis: Remembering The Pioneer Of Oral Rehydration Theory, Which Saved Millions Worldwide

Renowned paediatrician Dr Dilip Mahalanabis, who pioneered the use of oral rehydration theory for treating diarrhoeal and developing oral rehydration solution (ORS), recently passed away at a private hospital in Kolkata at the age of 88.

His family sources stated that he was admitted to a hospital in the city a couple of weeks ago with several age-related ailments, including a lung infection. However, all the efforts of the medical experts to revive his health failed, and ultimately he died on October 16.

Early Life & Education

Mahalanabis was born in 1934 in Kishoreganj in undivided Bengal. He graduated in 1958 from Calcutta Medical College and joined as an intern at the hospital's paediatric department, as per Hindustan Times.

In the 1950s, the British government began the National Health Service, for which he was selected, giving him the opportunity to study medicine in England. After attaining two degrees in London and Edinburgh, he became the first Indian to be chosen as registrar of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children in London.

At the Johns Hopkins International Center for Medical Research and Training at the Beliaghata Infectious Diseases Hospital, set up by the American government in Kolkata, he studied cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases.

Pioneering Of Oral Rehydration Theory

To recollect, during the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971, the country came under the grip of cholera. At the time, Mahalanabis served as a doctor in a refugee camp at Bangaon in West Bengal, the Indo-Bangladesh border area.

He created an oral solution by combining salt, sugar, and water, which miraculously prevented the spread of cholera and diarrhoea among the camp's residents. The solution later became well-known as ORS.

Oral rehydration theory is a substitute for intravenous rehydration theory for preventing and treating dehydration due to diarrhoea in an emergency when intravenous therapy is unavailable. According to the estimates of the World Health Organization (WHO), the theory is estimated to have saved more than 60 million lives.

In 2002, Dr Mahalanabis was conferred with the Pollin Prize, and in 2006 was awarded the Prince Mahidol Award. In 1994, he was elected as a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Although he contributed to medicine that saved millions of lives, the Union government scarcely acknowledged them.

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