E-DRUG: Tribute to Dr Kumariah Balasubramaniam
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[All of us who knew Dr Bala, as a friend, mentor, colleague, inspirer, activist, will also remember his gentleness and generosity of spirit.]
Today, The Lancet has published an obituary for Dr Balasubramaniam and remembered him befittingly as "...one of the world's most knowledgeable and resolute health activists".
He contributed vastly through his mind and spirit in the field of access to and rational use of essential medicines from people's perspectives. He wrote, spoke and championed issues tirelessly and inspired deeply a whole generation of professionals and turned them into health activists. The effectiveness and visibility of many national and global civil society movements today promoting treatment access owe a great deal to "Bala". The continuity of his work would be the best tribute to his legacy.
Zafar Mirza
Coordinator
Department of Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property
Information, Innovation, Evidence and Research
World Health Organization
Avenue Appia 20
1211 Geneva 27
Switzerland
<mirzaz@who.int>
The article can be accessed at:
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(11)61323-8/fulltext
[Copied as fair use]
The Lancet, Volume 378, Issue 9792
Page 660, 20 August 2011
Obituary by Stephen Pincock
Kumariah Balasubramaniam
Pharmacologist and activist for access to essential medicines. Born in
Sandilipay, Sri Lanka, on Sept 12, 1926, he died in Colombo, Sri Lanka,
on April 19, 2011, aged 84 years.
Kumariah Balasubramaniam was one of the world's most knowledgeable and
resolute health activists. But his long and influential career could
easily have been over before it even began. In 1947, while in his second
year at the University of Ceylon Medical School, the 20-year-old
Balasubramaniam contracted tuberculosis, a drug-resistant strain that
could have killed him. That illness offered a lot of time for
contemplation, notes his colleague Shila Kaur, Coordinator of Health
Action International-Asia Pacific. "During his prolonged
hospitalisation, he was constantly in touch with people from the poorer
parts of society in Sri Lanka. That really made him see things
differently. It really made him think that there needed to be more focus
on accessible medication for the poor. That was one of the things that
influenced his future career direction."
Only in 1952 was Balasubramaniam---known widely as Bala---declared free
of the disease and allowed to recommence his studies. After graduating
with high marks in pharmacology, he joined the Department of
Pharmacology at the University of Colombo led by Seneka Bibile, who went
on to found Sri Lanka's drug policy that has been used as a model
internationally for the development of policies based on rational drug
use. For Bala, Bibile was a personal role model and mentor. When Bibile
moved to the University of Peradeniya a few years later, Bala moved with
him. Then, in 1968, Bala travelled to the UK for 2 years to undertake a
Diploma in Clinical Pharmacology and a PhD. When he returned to Sri
Lanka, he was the sole permanent member of the academic faculty in the
department---Bibile having been appointed chair of the State
Pharmaceuticals Corporation. "By this time, Senaka Bibile had introduced
Bala to the social, economic, cultural and political dimensions of
pharmaceuticals and health care delivery", the editor of the /Ceylon
Medical Journal/, Colvin Gooneratne, wrote in 2009. "And so, Bala knew
by then what he must do."
The rest of Bala's career was focused on promoting rational drug use,
social justice, and equity in health care. He began in 1978, at the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva, where he
was part of an inter-agency task force working on the involvement of the
pharmaceutical sector in low-income countries. After the task force
submitted its report, Bala continued to work at the UN agency, helping
develop policy documents to strengthen the drugs sectors in Ethiopia,
Nepal, Cuba, the Philippines, and Tanzania. In 1981, he took part in a
UN seminar on pharmaceuticals in Geneva. At that meeting, an
organisation called Health Action International was born---a global
network of non-profit groups representing the interests of consumers in
drug policy and lobbying for increased access to essential medicines.
"He was one of the people who inspired us to have a people's health
movement", recalls Zafrullah Chowdhury, the driving force behind the
formulation of Bangladesh's national drug policy in the early 1980s.
In the late 1980s, Bala took a position as adviser and coordinator at
Health Action International Asia-Pacific (HAIAP), and relocated to
Penang in Malaysia. There he began working for access to essential
medicines lobbying for change. "He inspired thousands of people, made
them understand what rational drug use is", said Chowdhury. "And told
everybody it's not a one-time game. It needs persistent and continuous
movement, persuasion of the government, and persuasion of the WHO. That
is where really he made a tremendous contribution." According to Kaur,
who began working with Bala in the 1980s, "The expertise and advice he
gave in terms of national drug policy development in countries in the
Asia-Pacific region was essential. His career with the NGO world was
devoted towards ensuring that rational drug use and access to
medications is something that would be a priority for the poor."
Bala consulted for WHO on many occasions, and received the Commonwealth
Vice-Chancellors' Fellowship Award in 1994 and the Olle Hanson Award in
2006. His insights and advice were delivered softly, with gentleness and
a generosity of spirit that inspired those who knew him. "There was
never a day that went by without a generation of kindness on his part",
says Kaur. "He really epitomised what a doctor should be." He is
survived by his wife Kamala and their four sons.