Australian Respiratory Scientists To Receive Ho Chi Minh Scientific Prize In 2022
What is Ho Chi Minh Scientific prize?
The Ho Chi Minh Prize (Giải thưởng Hồ Chí Minh) is a peak national award by the government of Vietnam made in recognition of significant cultural and/or scientific achievements. The prize is awarded only once every five years. Named after President Ho Chi Minh, the founding father of Vietnam, the award signifies contributions of national or international significance. The prize is considered one of the highest honors bestowed by the government of Vietnam.
The criteria for this prize include: (i) exceptional excellence, and/or (ii) having highest scientific value, and/or; (ii) making major contributions to a better society and people’s lives. This is only the 6th time this award has been awarded since 1996. Except for the first award, there have only 1-4 individuals who are recognized in the areas of medicine and pharmacy.
Who is the winner of the Ho Chi Minh Scientific Prize in 2022?
This year, the award was bestowed upon a team of 23 lung health researchers and clinicians from Vietnam National Tuberculosis Program and international research institutes. This group has collaborated closely for many years and includes world leading experts in TB research who have made significant impacts in Vietnam on tuberculosis and other lung disease.
The recipients include:
- Scientia Professor Guy Marks from the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research and the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
- Professor Greg Fox, Professor of Respiratory Medicine at The University of Sydney, Australia and the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research
- Dr Thu-Anh from Woolcock Institute of Medical Research
A number of other leading researchers from the US and The Netherlands who work in Vietnam were also recognized.
Research impact?
TB is a disease that has affects over 10 million people each year, and is second only to COVID-19 as an infectious killer. Vietnam is one of the countries with the highest burden of TB in the world. Each year, over 100,000 people are found to have TB in Vietnam. However, at least another 50,000 people remain undiagnosed and often continue spreading the infection to others.
Since 2009, TB researchers from the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research and The University of Sydney in Australia have worked closely with Vietnamese TB researchers across 135 clinics throughout Vietnam to find effective ways to tackle this challenge. Their work and discoveries range from a groundbreaking innovation to end TB by using modern medical technology to perform community-wide testing for, and treatment of, TB to stop TB in its tracks, to new effective and shorter treatment regimens for latent TB infection and active TB disease, and digital health as well as social psychological support for TB patients by improving their treatment adherence and better managing their side effects.
Research outcomes were published in prestigious international scientific journals and have been translated into global or national policies. Today, as a result of this work, active case finding to detect TB is implemented widely throughout Vietnam and in many other high burden countries in the world, saving thousand lives.
What is special about the prize this year?
Key messages:
• This is the first time Ho Chi Minh prize has been awarded to a research team that includes international researchers.
• This is recognition of a strong partnership in science between Vietnamese and Australian researchers
• High level of research quality has been recognised by the government of Vietnam
• It occurs at a time when Vietnam and Australia are about to celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations between their countries.
Key scientific publications
https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1902129
https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1700209