The parasitic disease, known for blackening the victim's skin and affecting vital organs such as the liver and spleen, was fatal if left untreated.
Leading scientist and physicist of his time Dr Upendranath Brahmachari's name is not often mentioned in school lessons. However, he is the man whose life-saving discovery was responsible for saving lakhs of lives across continents from China to France. He helped man fight back against a kala-azar, a deadly parasitic epidemic prevalent in several countries. However, he was denied the Nobel Prize or any recognition that he was deserving of at that time and his ethnicity likely had a role to play here.
Dr. Brahmachari, a prominent doctor and scientist from Bengal, pursued his education at the Presidency College and the University of Calcutta. Initially graduating in mathematics and chemistry, he transitioned to the field of medicine and surgery, obtaining his MD in 1902 and PhD in 1904. Dr Brahmachari dedicated his efforts to addressing the challenge of finding a cure for kala-azar at the Campbell Medical School in Calcutta.
The parasitic disease, known for blackening the victim's skin and affecting vital organs such as the liver and spleen, was fatal if left untreated. Working diligently for two decades in less-than-ideal conditions, Dr. Brahmachari, without proper electricity or water supply, discovered Urea Stibamine in 1920. This breakthrough dramatically shifted the tide, transforming the mortality rate for black fever from 90 percent to a remarkable 90 percent success rate. Dr. Brahmachari, displaying his humanitarian spirit, provided his cure to numerous hospitals free of charge to combat the epidemic, all before the discovery of penicillin.
In addition to his groundbreaking work on kala-azar, Dr. Brahmachari established Asia's first blood bank in 1935. Despite earning six Nobel Prize nominations, alongside notable figures such as Sigmund Freud, he never secured the prestigious award. The year 1942 saw him nominated five times, but no Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded that year.
Speculations suggest that his ethnicity may have played a role in his exclusion from distinguished scientific institutions such as the Royal Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Allegedly, a defamation campaign hindered his acceptance into the Royal Society. Dr. Brahmachari's contributions extended beyond kala-azar, as he conducted research on various diseases, including influenza, leprosy, diabetes, malaria, and syphilis.
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