Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn, as the Representative of His Majesty the King,will confer the Prince Mahidol Award 2009 to the Awardees on Wednesday, 27th January 2010 at 17.30 hours at the Chakri Throne Hall. On behalf of His Majesty the King, Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn will host the banquet in honour of the Prince Mahidol Awardees 2009 on the same day at Boromrajasathitmaholarn Throne Hall at 20.00 hours.
On 27 November 2009, the meeting of Board of Trustees of the Prince Mahidol Award Foundation, chaired by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, decided to confer the Prince Mahidol Award 2009, to the following awardees out of 66 candidates from 35 countries. Details as follows:
In the field of medicine : Professor Anne Mills, Department of Health Economics and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, United Kingdom.
Professor Anne Mills’s work on Health Economics has influenced major health policies, both at national and international levels, by demonstrating that “proper investments in medicine and public health will have a major impact on economic growth and social equality”. Her work has made public healthcare a major issue in the global policy agenda and resulted in a four-fold increase in public healthcare investment over the past two decades. By directing healthcare resources to cost-effective interventions, the mortality rate of children and poor people in Africa and Asia has been reduced significantly, benefiting the health conditions of billions of lives in developing countries.
In the field of public health: 1) Dr. Wiwat Rojanapithayakorn, World Health Organization Representative to Mongolia, Former First Director, Prevention and Control of AIDS Center, Ministry of Public Health of Thailand, and 2) Mr. Mechai Viravaidya, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Population and Community Development Association.
Dr. Wiwat’s initiation of the “100% Condom Use Programme” has been recognized worldwide as one of the most successful HIV/AIDS prevention tools. The principle of the 100% Condom Use Programme is based on cooperation among all stakeholders, government authorities, provincial governors and officers, healthcare personnel and commercial sex business operators. The key success factor was empowering commercial sex workers to refuse service if customers do not use condoms: No Condom — No Sex. This programme was then expanded throughout Thailand. It played a crucial role in controlling the spread of HIV infection, resulting in the reduction of new HIV cases from 400,000 cases in 1991 down to less than 14,000 new cases in 2001.
Mr. Mechai’s work provided family planning education for women in rural areas. He has been a tireless proponent of the use of condoms to prevent unwanted pregnancies through unique communication campaigns, which have demystified condoms, previously a taboo subject and an unspoken issue in the public, so that they are now commonly-used items. He is known as Mr. Condom and condoms are commonly referred to by his name.
Two Nobel laureates received the Nobel Prize from the same research project that brought them the Prince Mahidol Award namely Dr. Barry Marshall, from Australia and Professor Harald zur Hausen from Germany. Professor Marshall, the 2001 Prince Mahidol Awardee in the Public Health, received the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 2005 for his discovery of a new type of bacteria called “Helicobacter pylori”. His findings transformed therapy of peptic ulcers from consumption of antacid H1 receptor or radical gastric surgery, to a short highly effective course of antibiotics. Professor Dr. Harald zur Hausen, the 2005 Prince Mahidol Awardee in Public Health, who is recently awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer.
For further information, please contact the Press Division, Department of Information, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tel.02-6435170, Fax.02-6435169, E-mail: div0704@mfa.go.th