Hawke Centre Inaugural Chair and Patron
The Hon Dr Basil Hetzel AC
Announced by the National Trust as a National Living Treasure on 16 March 2004
Recipient of the 2007 Prince Mahidol Award for his pioneering work on IDD (Iodine Deficiency Disorders)
King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand personally conferred Thailand's most prestigious medical award, the Prince Mahidol Award, on The Hon Dr Basil Hetzel and two other recipients in Ananda Samakhom Throne Hall in Bangkok on January 30, 2008.
The Prince Mahidol Foundation was set up in 1992 to honor the centenary of the Prince Mahidol, the father of King Bhumibol who was a doctor by training and is credited for helping to introduce modern medicine to Thailand. The Prince Mahidol Award has been granted to 47 medical innovators since 1992. They are conferred annually upon individuals or institutions which have demonstrated outstanding and exemplary contributions to the advancement of medical and public health services for humanity throughout the world. Each award consists of a medal, a certificate, and the sum of US$50,000.The three winners of the 2007 awards were picked from among 69 nominees from 35 different countries. The 2007 award was conferred on Professor Axel Ullrich, Director of Molecular Biology at the Max Planck Institute in Germany for the field of medicine, Dr Basil Hetzel, Chairman Emeritus of the ICCIDD, Australia for the field of public heath and Dr Sanduk Ruit, Medical Director of Tilganga Eye Centre, Nepal for the field of public health.
Dr Hetzel extensively studied the adverse effects of iodine deficiency upon human health, particularly on the development of the human brain. He showed that severe iodine deficiency can lead to maternal and fetal hypothyroidism, which causes endemic cretinism and mental retardation. His research clearly demonstrated that these disorders can be prevented by providing iodine to women during the reproductive period. Dr Hetzel coined the term ‘Iodine Deficiency Disorders’, and was one of the founders and is Chairman Emeritus of the ICCIDD. Dr Hetzel's extensive work against iodine deficiency have made a significant contribution to the proper development of human populations around the world, including Thailand. As quoted in the Thai press, Dr Hetzel said it was a great honor to receive the award because the award has been conferred on a person who worked for others in the field of public health. He said seeing patients recover and lead a normal life was the inspiration for him to conduct his work and research.
Chance & Commitment: Memoirs of a Medical Scientist
Biography
Basil Hetzel is a man on whom academic and community honours have rightly been bestowed, in recognition of his prodigious contributions:
- to medicine,
- to academic institutions,
- and to Australian life.
Basil Hetzel was born in London of Australian parents in 1922 and has
chosen to spend most of his life in Adelaide. But his horizons, his vision
and his influence stretch far beyond state and national borders.
A graduate of the University of Adelaide in medicine in the 1940s, Dr Hetzel
soon decided that medical research was his passion – though his genuine
interest in, and compassionate concern for people in all walks of life would
have made him an excellent GP, or a sympathetic psychiatrist – a specialty
which he briefly contemplated.
Research in the areas of blood pressure, stress and the effects of cortisone
took him to the United States on a Fulbright Research Scholarship in the
1950s. His work there on stress and thyroid diseases, was groundbreaking.
Although we take such connections for granted today, Dr Hetzel’s research
was at the forefront of modern understandings of the impact of emotional
disturbance on physiological health.
Further training in endocrinology in the UK gave him some experience with
radioactive iodine for the study of the thyroid gland. While in the UK he
also absorbed the work of European doctors dealing with the aftermath of the
Second World War. As a result he became further convinced that his belief in
the connection between body, mind and spirit was well founded. This belief
in the whole person, nurtured too by his deep personal commitment to
Christianity, has been pivotal to all areas of his work, throughout his
adult life.
Returning to Australia in 1956, Dr Hetzel was appointed to The University of
Adelaide, and established a research department and an endocrine diseases
clinic at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital. It was here that strands of his
earlier research work came together, and he uncovered the scientific and
medical connections that would enable him and his colleagues to improve the
lives of millions of people, especially in developing countries.
Goitre was common among the people of the mountains of Papua New Guinea and
his team, working with the Public Health Department of the then Territory
showed that it was due to iodine deficiency. Building on that work his team
was able to show that the associated form of severe mental retardation,
cretinism, could be completely prevented by correction of the iodine
deficiency before pregnancy.
From that point began the worldwide campaign which has consumed the second
half of Basil Hetzel’s life – to incorporate iodized salt into the diet of
those communities where iodine is lacking, and where intellectual disability
and deformity result. More than 2 billion people in 130 countries live in
areas that put them at risk. To have made a dent in such statistics is a
formidable achievement.
But Basil Hetzel has done just that. In the 1980s the researcher became the
public health campaigner. With support from AusAID he achieved success
through carefully explaining the facts – over and over again – to
governments, the United Nations, UNICEF and the World Health Organization,
to the World Bank and to community groups, all of whom have provided funds
and support. There is now a global partnership, which had achieved coverage
of 70% of households by 2000.
His persistence, determination, stubborn-ness, indefatigable commitment to
the cause and sheer hard work have meant that – from a tiny office in the
Women’s and Children’s Hospital at North Adelaide – he initiated, with
international colleagues, the International Council for Control of Iodine
Deficiency Disorders, involving over 700 scientists and other public health
professionals from 90 countries. From 1985 he served as Executive Director
for 10 years and a further 6 years as Chairman, only recently retiring in
2001, when he became Chairman Emeritus.
Though this might have been achievement enough, Dr Hetzel’s concerns in the
field of public health have not been limited to the area of iodine
deficiency. He has also directed his energy and influence to community
health issues – including Aboriginal health. As a public educator, he
reached tens of thousands as the ABC’s Boyer Lecturer in 1971under the title
‘Life & Health in Australia” and his Penguin book, Health and Australian
Society, published in 1974 sold just on 40,000 copies.
Over the period 1956-1985 Dr Hetzel served, in turn, as Reader and then
Michell Professor of Medicine at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, University of
Adelaide; Foundation Professor of Social and Preventive Medicine at Monash
University, and the First Chief of the CSIRO Division of Human Nutrition.
The University of South Australia conferred the award of Doctor of the
University on its former Chancellor in 1999. As Professor Denise Bradley,
the Vice Chancellor of the University of South Australia has observed of
him: he was ‘a force for decency, humanity and civility – a force for good’.
As Chancellor from 1992-1998, his role in the formative years of the
University was crucial in determining its mission and directions. His
conviction that universities must themselves contribute to the public good
was a guiding beacon. He also initiated the discussions that led to the
University’s statement of the qualities it wishes to engender in its
graduates.
Dr Hetzel has been a past Lieutenant Governor of South Australia and
fulfilled this role with dignity and distinction.
For his work in overcoming iodine deficiency, Dr Hetzel was honoured in
China by appointment as Honorary Professor at the Tianjin Medical University
in 1989. He was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1990 and was
awarded the RSL Anzac Peace Prize in 1997.
On 5 October 2001 His Excellency Sir Eric Neal, then Governor of South
Australia formally named the Clinical Research Centre at The Queen Elizabeth
Hospital as ‘The Basil Hetzel Institute for Medical Research’.
As Chair of the University’s Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, Dr Hetzel’s
connection with the world of education continues. Dr Hetzel has
enthusiastically embraced the Centre’s agenda to promote public
understanding of the issues, which shape Australian identity and civil
society.
The 2005 Adelaide Festival of Ideas was dedicated to Dr Hetzel.
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