2017 awards honour both lifetime achievement and young researchers
Each year The Union presents awards at The Union World Conference on Lung Health. This year six awards were presented, honouring contributions to tuberculosis and lung health.
The Karel Styblo Public Health Prize acknowledges a health worker or a community organisation for contributions to TB control over a period of 10 years or more. This year’s prize was awarded to Dr Rohit Sarin for his key contribution to DOTS and MDR-TB treatment both nationally and internationally.
The Union Scientific Prize went to Dr Sarita Shah for her outstanding collaborative and broad-reaching work on drug-resistant TB in Africa, including describing the geographic spread of XDR-TB, and treatment outcomes of patients co-infected with HIV and MDR/XDR-TB.
The Stephen Lawn TB-HIV Research Leadership Prize was established in 2016 through a global partnership between the TB Centre in London the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre in Cape Town and The Union. It acknowledges young researchers under 40 years of age who are conducting promising work focused on reducing the disease burden of TB and HIV/AIDS in Africa. This first prize went to Dr Leonardo Martinez for his research and leadership that embodies the knowledge, commitment, and spirit portrayed by Stephen Lawn.
The Young Investigator Prize was awarded to Dr Alberto Garcia-Basteiro for his efforts and success in revealing the huge TB burden in Mozambique.
The Princess Chichibu Global Memorial TB Award was presented to Dr Armand Van Deun by Dr Toru Mori of the Japan Anti-Tuberculosis Association for recognition of his achievement in the field of global tuberculosis control. Dr Van Deun worked in Bangladesh as Medical Director of the Damien Foundation's TB/leprosy project. In collaboration with the Bangladesh Damien Foundation Project and the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, he initiated a research project that resulted in the developing of the nine-month treatment regimen for MDR-TB. The award was collected by Dr Arnaud Trébucq on behalf of Dr Van Deun.
Dr. Joseph Amolo Aluoch from Kenya was made an Honorary Member of The Union. The title of Honorary Member of The Union is granted to a person who has become distinguished through active participation in The Union's activities and the fulfilment of its goals.
Dr. Aluoch has been active in The Union since the mid-1970s when he was the Coordinator of the National TB Control Programme in Kenya. He has been a long-term friend to The Union and advocate for the mission of The Union.
Nominations for the 2018 Union Awards were launched in Guadalajara and will be open until 20 January 2018. The 2018 awards will be presented at the 49th Union World Conference on Lung Health, 24 - 27 October 2018, The Hague, The Netherlands.