The Manson Medal (full name Sir Patrick Manson Medal, [1] originally the Manson Memorial Medal [2] ), named in honour of Sir Patrick Manson, is the highest accolade the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene awards. Started in 1923, it is awarded triennially to an individual whose contribution to tropical medicine or hygiene is deemed worthy by the council. [1]
Patrick Manson was a pioneer in medical science called tropical medicine. His discoveries of parasitic infections such as lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis (the parasite Schistosoma mansoni ), sparganosis, and contribution to malaria research earned him the title "father of tropical medicine." [3] Soon after his death in 1922, the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene decided to create a new medal in his honour. The first Manson Medal was awarded to Sir David Bruce in 1923. The 2022 Manson Medal was awarded to Sir Alimuddin Zumla, the first time in a hundred years that it was awarded to an ethnic minority scientist. [4]
Sir Patrick Manson was a Scottish physician who made important discoveries in parasitology. Working as a medical officer to the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs at Amoy, in 1887, he discovered that the disease lymphatic filariasis (notably as elephantiasis) was due to a tiny roundworm (now called Wuchereria bancrofti ) that was transmitted by the bite of a mosquito (Culex fatigans, now Culex quinquefasciatus ). [5] [6] This was the first discovery that certain diseases could be transmitted by insects, the establishment of vector biology. [7] In 1902, he discovered the species of blood fluke, Schistosoma, that caused intestinal bilharziasis. The first Schistosoma species, S. haemtabobium, that caused urinary bilharziasia was discovered by a German physician Theodor Bilharz in 1851. Louis Westenra Sambon gave the name of the second species, Schistosomum mansoni in 1907 in honour of the discoverer. [8] [9] In 1882, Manson discovered sparganosis, a parasitic infection caused by the tapeworm Spirometra . [10] [11]
In 1894, Manson formulated the mosquito-malaria theory to explain the hitherto unknown process of the transmission of malaria, one of the deadliest parasitic diseases in humans. Based on his experiences in parasitic infections, he predicted that malarial parasites were protozoans and that they were transmitted by mosquitos. [12] [13] The theory was experimentally proved by Ronald Ross in India who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for the discovery. [14] For his contributions, Manson had been recognised as the "father of tropical medicine." [3]
The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, (RSTMH) was founded in 1907 by Sir James Cantlie and George Carmichael Low. Manson became the first elected president of the society, serving from 1907 to 1909. [15] Sir William Boog Leishman, Major-General of the Army Medical Services, felt that the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, an institute Manson had established, should contain a respectable portrait of the founder. In 1921, Leishman collected donations from friends and admirers as the Portrait Fund. [1] There was a leftover of fund after completion of the project. [16] After Manson's death in 1922, the surplus money was given to the RSTMH to institute an award for scientists with outstanding contributions to tropical medicine and hygiene. [17] [1]
On 26 September 1922, the first Manson Memorial Medal (as an honorary award) was given to Lady Manson (Henrietta Isabella Manson) in recognition of her support to Manson throughout the latter's career. The medal was made in bronze having Manson's portrait on one side and the reverse an inscription, "London School of Tropical Medicine." [16]
Sir Charles Scott Sherrington, the president of the Royal Society announced on 30 November 1922:
The Manson Memorial Medal, this year instituted there for triennial award to work of special distinction in Tropical Medicine, is a tribute to Manson's work of example and leadership in that field of medical science. [18]
After the first medal to Lady Manson, RSTMH decided to change the inscription to "Tropical Medicine and Hygiene." [16] The first official medal was given to Sir David Bruce in 1923. [17] Bruce had made pioneering studies and discoveries in tropical medicine. In 1886 he led the Malta Fever Commission that investigated an outbreak of Malta fever (later eponymously called brucellosis) in Malta. He discovered that the disease was due to a bacterium, later named Brucella . [19] [20] In 1894, he discovered a protozoan parasite (later named after him as Trypanosoma brucei ) that caused animal sleeping sickness (nagana) in Zululand. Then he led Sleeping Sickness Commission in 1902 to investigate the cause of human sleeping sickness. His team discovered that the infection was transmitted by the tsetse fly (Glossina palpalis). [21] [22]
The inscription had been changed to "Tropical Medicine. A.D. 1922" to commemorate the death year of Manson. [1]
The Manson Medal is given every three years since 1923, as follows: [23]
Year | Recipient |
---|---|
1923 | David Bruce |
1926 | Ettore Marchiafava |
1929 | Ronald Ross, FRS |
1932 | Theobald Smith [24] |
1935 | John William Watson Stephens, FRS |
1938 | Leonard Rogers |
1941 | Emile Brumpt |
1944 | Rickard Christophers, FRS |
1947 | Charles Morley Wenyon |
1950 | Neil Hamilton Fairley, FRS |
1953 | Jerome Rodhain |
1956 | John Alexander Sinton, FRS |
1959 | Henry Edward Shortt, FRS |
1962 | Edmond Sergent |
1965 | Cyril Garnham, FRS |
1968 | John Smith Knox Boyd, FRS |
1971 | Gordon Covell |
1974 | Cecil Hoare |
1977 | James H S Gear |
1980 | Richard J W Rees |
1983 | Ralph Lainson, FRS |
1986 | William Trager |
1989 | David F Clyde |
1992 | Leonard Goodwin |
1995 | Philip Edmund Clinton Manson-Bahr |
1998 | David Weatherall |
2001 | Brian Greenwood |
2004 | Wallace Peters |
2007 | Herbert M Gilles |
2010 | Nicholas White |
2013 | David H Molyneux |
2016 | Peter Piot |
2019 | Janet Hemingway, FRS |
2022 | Alimuddin Zumla |
Brevet Colonel Sir Samuel Rickard Christophers was a British protozoologist and medical entomologist specialising in mosquitoes.
Sir Ronald Ross was a British medical doctor who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on the transmission of malaria, becoming the first British Nobel laureate, and the first born outside Europe. His discovery of the malarial parasite in the gastrointestinal tract of a mosquito in 1897 proved that malaria was transmitted by mosquitoes, and laid the foundation for the method of combating the disease.
Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran was a French physician who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1907 for his discoveries of parasitic protozoans as causative agents of infectious diseases such as malaria and trypanosomiasis. Following his father, Louis Théodore Laveran, he took up military medicine as his profession. He obtained his medical degree from University of Strasbourg in 1867.
Schistosoma is a genus of trematodes, commonly known as blood flukes. They are parasitic flatworms responsible for a highly significant group of infections in humans termed schistosomiasis, which is considered by the World Health Organization to be the second-most socioeconomically devastating parasitic disease, with hundreds of millions infected worldwide.
Tropical medicine is an interdisciplinary branch of medicine that deals with health issues that occur uniquely, are more widespread, or are more difficult to control in tropical and subtropical regions.
Schistosoma mansoni is a water-borne parasite of humans, and belongs to the group of blood flukes (Schistosoma). The adult lives in the blood vessels near the human intestine. It causes intestinal schistosomiasis. Clinical symptoms are caused by the eggs. As the leading cause of schistosomiasis in the world, it is the most prevalent parasite in humans. It is classified as a neglected tropical disease. As of 2021, the World Health Organization reports that 251.4 million people have schistosomiasis and most of it is due to S. mansoni. It is found in Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Brazil, Venezuela and Suriname.
Sir Patrick Manson was a Scottish physician who made important discoveries in parasitology, and was a founder of the field of tropical medicine. He graduated from University of Aberdeen with degrees in Master of Surgery, Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Law. His medical career spanned mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and London. He discovered that filariasis in humans is transmitted by mosquitoes. This is the foundation of modern tropical medicine, and he is recognized with an epithet "Father of Tropical Medicine". This also made him the first person to show pathogen transmission by a blood-feeding arthropod. His discovery directly invoked the mosquito-malaria theory, which became the foundation in malariology. He eventually became the first President of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. He founded the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, more commonly known by its acronym RSTMH, was founded in 1907 by Sir James Cantlie and George Carmichael Low. Sir Patrick Manson, the Society's first President (1907–1909), was recognised as "the father of tropical medicine" by his biographer. He passed the post on to Sir Ronald Ross, discoverer of the role of mosquitoes in the transmission of malaria.
Sir Brian Mellor Greenwood is a British physician, biomedical research scientist, academic, and recipient of the first Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize.
A Schistosomiasis vaccine is a vaccine against Schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease caused by several species of fluke of the genus Schistosoma. No effective vaccine for the disease exists yet. Schistosomiasis affects over 200 million people worldwide, mainly in rural agricultural and peri-urban areas of the third world, and approximately 10% suffer severe health complications from the infection. While chemotherapeutic drugs, such as praziquantel, oxamniquine and metrifonate both no longer on the market, are currently considered safe and effective for the treatment of schistosomiasis, reinfection occurs frequently following drug treatment, thus a vaccine is sought to provide long-term treatment. Additionally, experimental vaccination efforts have been successful in animal models of schistosomiasis.
The effects of parasitic worms, or helminths, on the immune system is a recently emerging topic of study among immunologists and other biologists. Experiments have involved a wide range of parasites, diseases, and hosts. The effects on humans have been of special interest. The tendency of many parasitic worms to pacify the host's immune response allows them to mollify some diseases, while worsening others.
George Carmichael Low was a Scottish parasitologist.
Sir Alimuddin Zumla is a British-Zambian professor of infectious diseases and international health at University College London Medical School. He specialises in infectious and tropical diseases, clinical immunology, and internal medicine, with a special interest in HIV/AIDS, respiratory infections, and diseases of poverty. He is known for his leadership of infectious/tropical diseases research and capacity development activities. He was awarded a Knighthood in the 2017 Queens Birthday Honours list for services to public health and protection from infectious disease. In 2012, he was awarded Zambia's highest civilian honour, the Order of the Grand Commander of Distinguished services - First Division. In 2023, for the sixth consecutive year, Zumla was recognised by Clarivate Analytics, Web of Science as one of the world's top 1% most cited researchers. In 2021 Sir Zumla was elected as Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences.
Percy Cyril Claude Garnham CMG FRS, was a British biologist and parasitologist. On his 90th birthday, he was called the "greatest living parasitologist".
Janet Hemingway is a British infectious diseases specialist. She is the former director of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) and founding director of the Infection Innovation Consortium and Professor of Tropical Medicine at LSTM. She is currently the president of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
Mosquito-malaria theory was a scientific theory developed in the latter half of the 19th century that solved the question of how malaria was transmitted. The theory proposed that malaria was transmitted by mosquitoes, in opposition to the centuries-old medical dogma that malaria was due to bad air, or miasma. The first scientific idea was postulated in 1851 by Charles E. Johnson, who argued that miasma had no direct relationship with malaria. Although Johnson's hypothesis was forgotten, the arrival and validation of the germ theory of diseases in the late 19th century began to shed new lights. When Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran discovered that malaria was caused by a protozoan parasite in 1880, the miasma theory began to subside.
Louis Westenra Sambon was an Italian-English physician who played important roles in understanding the causes (etiology) of diseases. He described many pathogenic protozoans, insects, and helminths including the name Schistosoma mansoni for a blood fluke. He was an authority on the classification of parasitic tongue worms called Pentastomida (Linguatulida), and one of the genus Sambonia is named after him.
Paul J Brindley is an Australian parasitologist, microbiologist, and helminthologist. He is professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine at the George Washington University.
The Sleeping Sickness Commission was a medical project established by the British Royal Society to investigate the outbreak of African sleeping sickness or African trypanosomiasis in Africa at the turn of the 20th century. The outbreak of the disease started in 1900 in Uganda, which was at the time a protectorate of the British Empire. The initial team in 1902 consisted of Aldo Castellani and George Carmichael Low, both from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Cuthbert Christy, a medical officer on duty in Bombay, India. From 1903, David Bruce of the Royal Army Medical Corps and David Nunes Nabarro of the University College Hospital took over the leadership. The commission established that species of blood protozoan called Trypanosoma brucei, named after Bruce, was the causative parasite of sleeping sickness.
George Macdonald was a British physician who was Professor of Tropical Hygiene at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. His research concentrated primarily on malaria, its epidemiology and control. He was the author of many papers on the mathematical analysis of transmission of tropical infections and the author of The Epidemiology and Control of Malaria, published in 1957.
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