icddr,b Timeline

2022: icddr,b scientist won the grand prize at the 4th Annual Innovations Pitch Competition by The American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH).

2021: icddr,b Senior Scientist wins the 2021 Ramon Magsaysay Award, often cited as ‘Asia’s Nobel Prize’

2020: icddr,b Senior Scientist received the 2020 L’OréalUNESCO For Women in Science award

2019: The prestigious journal Science recognised icddr,b and the Washington University, USA’s research on microbes to combat malnutrition as one of the ten biggest scientific breakthroughs of this year

2018: Prince Mahidol Award 2018 to icddr,b scientists for oral cholera vaccine (OCV) development

2018: Supporting the Government of Bangladesh to improve microbiological quality of pasteurized milk (75% of all milk available on the local market is unsafe for direct consumption)

2017: Humanitarian response to Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals in Rohingya camps

2017: icddr,b wins Conrad N Hilton Humanitarian Prize

2016: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon endorses icddr,b

2016: Charles C Shepard science award given to icddr,b scientist

2016: Single OCV dose protective in endemic setting – finding in New England Journal of Medicine

2015: Ultra low-cost bubble-CPAP for treatment of severe pneumonia and hypoxemia in children

2015: Ready-to-use supplementary and therapeutic food (RUTF) to prevent and treat childhood malnutrition

2015: Piloting breast milk pasteurisation to enable readymade garment workers breastfeed at work

2014: OCV impact found substantial through Bangladesh’s existing immunisation infrastructure

2014: Gut microbial communities shown to significantly influence recovery from malnutrition

2013: The Lancet lauds icddr,b’s contributions in improved health in Bangladesh

2011: First US Patent 7638271 for inventing a new tuberculosis diagnostic method

2011: ‘Continuum of Care’ approach achieves 36% drop in perinatal mortality

2010: Gender violence research feeds into Bangladesh’s Domestic Violence Act

2010: Rotavirus vaccine trial: Key findings in The Lancet

2010: Clean delivery kit & icddr,b birthing-mat to identify women at risk of postpartum haemorrhage

2008: Projahnmo project reports 34% reduction in neonatal mortality in The Lancet

2008: Influenza vaccine cut illness by 63% in infants <6 months; averted one-third of all febrile respiratory illnesses

2005: Independence Day Award, Bangladesh’s most prestigious award

2002: Zinc treatment of diarrhoea found to reduce <5 mortality by 50%

2001: Gates Award for Global Health for development of Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS)

2000: Assisted Government of Bangladesh with control of major dengue epidemic in Dhaka

1999: Management of severely malnourished children cut to less than 5%

1998: HIV sero-surveillance begins on behalf of Government of Bangladesh

1995: Maternal immunisation with pneumococcal vaccine shown to protect newborns

1993: New Vibrio cholerae 0139 (Bengal strain) identified and characterised

1985: First field trial of oral cholera vaccine launched

1982: Matlab Maternal Child Health and Family Planning project achieves major drop in fertility rates

1980: Tetanus toxoid vaccination of mothers found to reduce neonatal mortality by 75%

1978: Introduction of use of sucrose (table sugar) or unrefined brown sugar (gur) to replace glucose in ORS

1978: Rotavirus identified as most common cause of diarrhoea in infants - highest priority for new vaccines

1978: icddr,b formally established

1975: With UK on board CRL revitalised its research operations which had been disrupted by the liberation war of 1971

1968: First successful trials of ORS result published in The Lancet

1966: Cholera fatality reduced to less than 1%

1966: The world’s longest-running health and demographic surveillance (HDSS) starts in Matlab, Chandpur

1962: Dhaka Hospital established

1960: Cholera Research Laboratory (CRL), forerunner of icddr,b, launches in Dhaka