» Articles » PMID: 39944251

Taking Science to Cholera in Bangladesh: the Personal Odyssey of Dr William B Greenough III and His Colleagues

Overview
Specialty Gastroenterology
Date 2025 Feb 13
PMID 39944251
Authors
Affiliations
Soon will be listed here.
Abstract

Cholera is one of the most rapidly fatal infectious diseases known. Historically, two major problems have been faced by those who care for patients with cholera: first, how to treat individual patients to prevent rapid death, and second, how to prevent the spread of this highly contagious disease in the immediate community and beyond. In this review, we will discuss how clinical scientists have approached these two issues with some personal experiences that Dr William B Greenough III encountered when he was addressing these problems and treating cholera victims at the Pakistan SEATO Cholera Research Laboratory in the early 1960s in Dhaka, East Pakistan.

References
1.
Milner S, Greenough 3rd W, Asuku M, Feldman M, Makam R, Noppenberger D . From cholera to burns: a role for oral rehydration therapy. J Health Popul Nutr. 2012; 29(6):648-51. PMC: 3259728. DOI: 10.3329/jhpn.v29i6.9902. View

2.
Sack D, Clemens J, Huda S, Harris J, Khan M, Chakraborty J . Antibody responses after immunization with killed oral cholera vaccines during the 1985 vaccine field trial in Bangladesh. J Infect Dis. 1991; 164(2):407-11. DOI: 10.1093/infdis/164.2.407. View

3.
Ruxin J . Magic bullet: the history of oral rehydration therapy. Med Hist. 1994; 38(4):363-97. PMC: 1036912. DOI: 10.1017/s0025727300036905. View

4.
Schultz S, ZALUSKY R . ION TRANSPORT IN ISOLATED RABBIT ILEUM. II. THE INTERACTION BETWEEN ACTIVE SODIUM AND ACTIVE SUGAR TRANSPORT. J Gen Physiol. 1964; 47:1043-59. PMC: 2195378. DOI: 10.1085/jgp.47.6.1043. View

5.
Thomas E, HERMAN Jr E, Greenough 3rd W, HAGER E, CANNON J, SAHLER O . Irradiation and marrow infusion in leukemia. Observations in five patients with acute leukemia treated by whole-body exposures of 1,400 to 2,000 roentgens and infusions of marrow. Arch Intern Med. 1961; 107:829-45. DOI: 10.1001/archinte.1961.03620060029006. View