Aussie doctor’s work acknowledged in Thailand

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By South-East Asia correspondent Karen Percy

Thai King Bhumipol Adulyadej seeks to reward the world’s leading health pioneers. (AFP)

For more than four decades, Australian Professor Basil Hetzel has been at the forefront of the treatment of iodine deficiency, which causes brain damage.

The World Health Organisation and UNICEF use his treatments right across the globe in assisting hundreds of millions of people.

Now Professor Hetzel’s work has been recognised by the King of Thailand, who has bestowed one of his country’s top awards on the Adelaide doctor, also a former lieutenant-governor of South Australia.

Last night he was the guest of honour before a royal audience in the imposing, marble-columned throne hall of Bangkok’s Dusit Palace.

Thailand’s King Bhumipol Adulyadej, has a passion for global medicine and public health, and since 1992 he has sought to award and reward some of the world’s leading pioneers.

Professor Hetzel’s research and treatments into the iodine deficiency disorders which cause brain damage have changed hundreds of millions of lives.

“To be able to remedy this situation is a great privilege,” he said.

“You couldn’t ask for anything much cheaper. A few pennies per year covers the cost of iodised salt.”

Still, even in the 21st century, cretinism and other iodine deficiency disorders are rife.

The other recipients of the Prince Mahidol awards face similar challenges.

Professor Axel Ullrich from Germany has developed targeted treatment for breast cancer, which remains one of the leading causes of cancer deaths amongst women.

Dr Sandruk Ruit is a Nepalese eye surgeon who worked alongside Australian eye specialist, Fred Hollows.

“We saw in the world together that there was tremendous inequity for such simple sight-restoration procedure as cataracts,” he said.

“We wanted to fight very hard to see how best we could do that to the developing countries.”

All of the recipients praised King Bhumipol’s commitment to health issues. The Prince Mahidol awards pay tribute to the King’s father, Prince Mahidol, who was a doctor.

The Thai royal family has embraced the recipients as their own, as Anne Hetzel told us as she and her husband cruised the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok.

“We’ve been encouraged to use a royal car,” she said.

“That has been slightly unnerving because the traffic parts as you go through and we’ve had a motorcycle escort. So we both sat back and pretended that for one week this happens to us normally.”

The royal treatment will be over in a few days, but the royal gratitude will last a lifetime.