Hemendra Nath Chatterjee

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Hemendra Nath Chatterjee was an Indian scientist from West Bengal known for the earliest publication of a formula for Orally Rehydrated Saline (ORS) for diarrhea management in 1952. [1] [2] [3] Although his results were published in The Lancet , they didn't receive much recognition from Western scientists until later. [2] Some argue this was for cultural reasons as his treatment protocol included traditional medicine, and also because the scientific underpinnings of ORS weren't well understood. [2] However, some argue he shouldn't be given credit for its invention at all, as some of his results contradict the results of modern studies, and argue his success was likely due to using only mildly ill patients. [1]

In his 1953 study, Chatterjee gave a dilute salt and glucose solutions both rectally and orally to a small percentage of pre-selected mildly ill cholera patients. He did not measure intake and output and presented no balance dated confirming absorption. In that paper he states that Avomine can stop vomiting during cholera and then oral rehydration is possible. Patients also received a leaf decoction of Coleus aromaticus, a folk anti-diarrheal, which is now known to make diarrhea worse. [1] The formulation of the fluid replacement solution was hypotonic sodium chloride, 25 g of glucose and 1000 ml of water. [3] [4]

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Dilip Mahalanabis was an Indian paediatrician known for pioneering the use of oral rehydration therapy to treat diarrhoeal diseases. Mahalanabis had begun researching oral rehydration therapy in 1966 as a research investigator for the Johns Hopkins University International Center for Medical Research and Training in Calcutta, India. During the Bangladeshi war for independence, he led the effort by the Johns Hopkins Center that demonstrated the dramatic life-saving effectiveness of oral rehydration therapy when cholera broke out in 1971 among refugees from East Bengal who had sought asylum in West Bengal. The simple, inexpensive Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) gained acceptance, and was later hailed as one of the most important medical advances of the 20th century.

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David R. Nalin is an American physiologist, and Pollin Prize for Pediatric Research and Prince Mahidol Award, a.k.a. Mahidol Medal winner. Nalin had the key insight that oral rehydration therapy (ORT) would work if the volume of solution patients drank matched the volume of their fluid losses, and that this would drastically reduce or completely replace the only current treatment for cholera, intravenous therapy. Nalin led the trials that first demonstrated ORT works, both in cholera patients, and more significantly, also in other dehydrating diarrhea illnesses. Nalin's discoveries have been estimated to have saved over 50 million lives worldwide.

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Dehydration can occur as a result of diarrhea, vomiting, water scarcity, physical activity, and alcohol consumption. Management of dehydration seeks to reverse dehydration by replenishing the lost water and electrolytes. Water and electrolytes can be given through a number of routes, including oral, intravenous, and rectal.

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Norbert Hirschhorn is an Austrian-born American public health physician. He was one of the inventors and developers of the life-saving method called oral rehydration therapy for adults and children suffering fluid loss from cholera and other infectious diarrheal illnesses. It is estimated that his work has saved around 50 million people suffering from dehydration.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Nalin, David R. (March 2022). "The History of Intravenous and Oral Rehydration and Maintenance Therapy of Cholera and Non-Cholera Dehydrating Diarrheas: A Deconstruction of Translational Medicine: From Bench to Bedside?". Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease. 7 (3): 50. doi: 10.3390/tropicalmed7030050 . ISSN   2414-6366. PMC   8949912 . PMID   35324597.
  2. 1 2 3 Matt Reynolds. "Salt, Sugar, Water, Zinc: How Scientists Learned to Treat the 20th Century's Biggest Killer of Children—Asterisk". www.asteriskmag.com. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  3. 1 2 Control of vomiting in cholera and oral replacement of fluid; Chatterjee HN; Lancet. 2 November 1953;2(6795):1063 [ permanent dead link ]
  4. MAGIC BULLET: THE HISTORY OF ORAL REHYDRATION THERAPY; JOSHUA NALIBOW RUXIN