Two individuals who helped transform tuberculosis (TB) control in their home countries have become the first winners of a prestigious international health prize, to mark their contribution to improved TB control. The Stop TB Partnership Kochon Prize was inaugurated this year, and will be awarded for the first time, at the 37th Union World Conference on Lung Health, Palais des Congr?s, Paris.
The 2006 prize winners were announced today by the Stop TB Partnership and the Kochon Foundation. They are Mr Winstone Zulu, a TB/HIV activist from Zambia, and Dr L.S. Chauhan, National TB Control Programme Manager from India.
Mr Zulu is a dynamic and tireless advocate on behalf of people co-infected with TB and HIV. He himself was cured of tuberculosis, although all of his four brothers died of the disease. He is a co-founder of Kara-Kabwe Programmes for Kara Counselling, a provider of HIV/AIDS counselling in Zambia, and was Co-President of TBTV.org, one of the first global organizations of people with TB and HIV/AIDS.
Dr Chauhan is Deputy Director-General (Tuberculosis) and Programme Manager of the National TB Control Programme in India. Since 2002 he has overseen the rapid expansion of the DOTS TB-control program in India, a remarkable accomplishment in the country that bears the world’s highest TB burden.
The Stop TB Partnership is a network of more than 500 organizations. The Secretariat is housed within the headquarters of the World Health Organization in Geneva.
The Kochon Foundation was created in 1973 by the now-deceased Chong-Kun Lee, Chairman of the Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical Corp., which is one of the first TB drug manufacturers in Korea.
Tuberculosis is a global public health menace of catastrophic proportions. Five thousand people die of TB, a curable disease, every day. By awarding this annual prize the Stop TB Partnership and the Kochon Foundation wishes to recognize and encourage those at the forefront of the campaign to accelerate the battle to Stop TB.