Lumen Summer 2016 - Flipbook - Page 5
story by Genevieve Sanchez
Honorary doctorate goes to
iodine crusader
D
r Basil Hetzel AC often refers to
chance and good fortune as factors
in his success. He even believes a
bout of pulmonary tuberculosis following his
graduation was a mixed blessing.
While it ended his career in the air
force, it saw him take a pioneering path in
medicine that would go on to affect up to
one billion people around the world.
It was Basil who first recognised the
effects of iodine deficiency in contributing to
high rates of brain damage called cretinism.
He established the International Council
for the Control of Iodine Deficiency
Disorders (ICCIDD) to increase awareness
of the seriousness of iodine deficiency
and to work on programs to eradicate this
widespread but easily remedied condition.
Basil’s work has seen him honoured
around the world and this year the
University of Adelaide paid him the highest
academic recognition in awarding him
an honorary degree of Doctor of the
University for his distinguished service to
medical research in South Australia and,
more broadly, to society.
At the ceremony, Vice-Chancellor and
President Professor Warren Bebbington
said that Basil’s outstanding achievements
in major aspects of public health and
clinical medicine have had a substantial
impact on the lives of many individuals.
“He has served the University of
Adelaide, his State and his profession with
distinction, and received the Distinguished
Alumni Award of the University of Adelaide
in 1995,” he said.
Basil graduated from the University
with a Bachelor of Medicine in 1944 and
went on to win a Fulbright Scholarship,
spending three years in New York with
his family followed by a year in London
at St Thomas’ Hospital.
It was after his return to Adelaide, while
working as the University’s Michell Professor
of Medicine at the Queen Elizabeth
Hospital, that he began his most influential
studies of iodine deficiency in Papua New
Guinea. He proved the effectiveness of
iodized oil in treating goitre and it was
incorporated into the international public
health practices of the World Health
Organisation and UNICEF.
Basil continued his work in Melbourne, as
the first Chair of Social and Preventative
Medicine at Monash University, and
by 1970 his team demonstrated that
correction of iodine deficiency before
pregnancy totally prevented endemic
cretinism and related conditions. This
was pacemaking, global research.
From 1986, as the CSIRO’s first Chief
of the Division of Human Nutrition, he
showed that iodine deficiency caused
retardation of brain development in sheep
and in marmoset monkeys.
Iodine Deficiency Disorder (IDD) is
now recognised by WHO as the most
common preventable cause of brain
damage in the world with more than
2 billion people at risk in 130 countries.
“A global program of prevention of
IDD and other childhood disorders was
launched at the UN World Summit for
Children in New York in 1990 which
provided unprecedented political support
at Heads of State level,” said Basil. “By
2000, household usage of iodized salt
had increased from less than 20 per cent
before 1990 to 60 per cent in 2000, with
further progress since.
“This is regarded by WHO as a global
success, comparable to the eradication
of small pox and polio.”
And of his life’s work which has made
a difference to the lives of millions: “I was
interested in making a better world.”
Below: Basil with family after accepting his
Honorary Doctorate.
The University of Adelaide | Alumni Magazine 3
