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个人简介
I have been working in icddr,b as an Environmental Microbiologist for 44 years. I started my research career with the objective to discover the inter-epidemic reservoir of Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of the ancient and still devastating disease cholera. In Bangladesh, cholera epidemics occur twice every year during the pre-monsoon (March-May) and post-monsoon (October-December) seasons. During these epidemics, virulent forms of V. cholerae can be isolated both from the environment as well as from the patients. Once the epidemic subsides, however, the bacterium can no longer be isolated from the environment. This ostensible disappearance of the bacterium during the inter-epidemic period- more specifically, the reservoir or site of survival and multiplication of the bacteria during this period- has been the subject of intense scientific investigation since the discovery of the bacterium itself. On the hypothesis that V. cholerae survives in association with aquatic fauna, many scientists investigated various aquatic fauna e.g., oyster, crab, snail, zooplankton etc. as reservoirs. Breaking ranks with what was then considered the scientific consensus, we began investigating the different kinds of aquatic flora in the late 1970’s as possible candidates for inter-epidemic reservoirs.
After investigation for a number of years, in a flurry of publications in the 1990’s following my PhD in the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, I presented evidence that it is not the aquatic fauna, but rather a member of the aquatic flora- mainly the blue green alga, Anabaena variabilis that can act as an inter-epidemic reservoir of Vibrio cholerae O1 in the aquatic environment of Bangladesh. This discovery took place more than 100 years after the discovery of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae by Dr. Robert Koch in 1884. I have continued to flesh out aspects of this association in the years following that discovery, based on laboratory microcosm-based experiments as well as longitudinal environmental surveillance. These conclusions were later reinforced by investigations from our own laboratory, as well as reports from other investigators using satellite imagery data.
In charting the course of my scientific career, I drew inspiration from Dr. Ronald Ross, who, after demonstrating that the malarial parasite is borne by mosquitoes, proceeded to virtually eradicate malaria from many countries by killing mosquitoes using DDT. I realized control of cholera must take a somewhat different route, since its environmental reservoir, the aforementioned blue-green algae, are ubiquitous in surface water. We cannot “destroy” the blue-green algae from all kinds of surface water systems e.g., ponds, lakes, rivers and the Bay of Bengal. Therefore, the only feasible way to control cholera transmission would be to treat the point-of-use water. After exploring a number of treatment methods, we have been able to develop a mixture by combining alum potash, bleaching powder and lime, called “Siraj Mixture”. In a pilot study, none of the 420 households contracted any waterborne diarrhoeal disease. The mixture is very cheap (0.5 USD/pack), easy to use and prepared from locally available ingredients. This innovation is a simple and practical solution to prevent not only cholera but all kinds of waterborne diarrhoeal diseases.
Recently, my research focus has expanded in a number of different directions. These include: the effects of climate variability and biotic and abiotic drivers on disease prevalence, the degree to which groundwater aquifers are affected by nearby pit latrine contaminants (my findings in this sector were picked up in a recent issue of The Economist), correlating household microbiological water quality with socio-demographic variables, and investigating antimicrobial resistance in environmental reservoirs using metagenomics approaches.
As I started my career with cholera and cholera being a waterborne disease, I concentrated my research on water-related issues from the very beginning of my research career. As there is no long-term protective vaccine against cholera available, I understood that prevention, control, and eradication of cholera depend on water, sanitation, and hygiene-related issues for the long-term solution. Therefore, I started working on various WASH-related projects which is evident by the number of research projects and publications I have. So, WASH-related issues are my field of scientific interest and as such, I got the experience and developed expertise in various WASH-related fields for the last 40 years.
研究兴趣
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