Manson Medal
The Manson Medal, named in honour of Sir Patrick Manson, is the highest accolade the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene awards. Started in 1923, it is awarded triennially to an individual whose contribution to tropical medicine or hygiene is deemed worthy by the council.
Patrick Manson was a pioneer in medical science called tropical medicine. His discoveries of parasitic infections such as lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis, sparganosis, and contribution to malaria research earned him the title "father of tropical medicine." Soon after his death in 1922, the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene decided to create a new medal in his honour. The first Manson Medal was awarded to Sir David Bruce in 1923. The 2022 Manson Medal was awarded to Sir Alimuddin Zumla, the first time in a hundred years that it was awarded to an ethnic minority scientist.
History
Background
Sir Patrick Manson was a Scottish physician who made important discoveries in parasitology. Working as a medical officer to the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs at Amoy, in 1887, he discovered that the disease lymphatic filariasis was due to a tiny roundworm that was transmitted by the bite of a mosquito. This was the first discovery that certain diseases could be transmitted by insects, the establishment of vector biology. In 1902, he discovered the species of blood fluke, Schistosoma, that caused intestinal bilharziasis. The first Schistosoma species, S. haemtabobium, that caused urinary bilharziasia was discovered by a German physician Theodor Bilharz in 1851. Louis Westenra Sambon gave the name of the second species, Schistosomum mansoni in 1907 in honour of the discoverer. In 1882, Manson discovered sparganosis, a parasitic infection caused by the tapeworm Spirometra.In 1894, Manson formulated the mosquito-malaria theory to explain the hitherto unknown process of the transmission of malaria, one of the deadliest parasitic diseases in humans. Based on his experiences in parasitic infections, he predicted that malarial parasites were protozoans and that they were transmitted by mosquitos. The theory was experimentally proved by Ronald Ross in India who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for the discovery. For his contributions, Manson had been recognised as the "father of tropical medicine."
Establishment
The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, was founded in 1907 by Sir James Cantlie and George Carmichael Low. Manson became the first elected president of the society, serving from 1907 to 1909. Sir William Boog Leishman, Major-General of the Army Medical Services, felt that the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, an institute Manson had established, should contain a respectable portrait of the founder. In 1921, Leishman collected donations from friends and admirers as the Portrait Fund. There was a leftover of fund after completion of the project. After Manson's death in 1922, the surplus money was given to the RSTMH to institute an award for scientists with outstanding contributions to tropical medicine and hygiene.On 26 September 1922, the first Manson Memorial Medal was given to Lady Manson in recognition of her support to Manson throughout the latter's career. The medal was made in bronze having Manson's portrait on one side and the reverse an inscription, "London School of Tropical Medicine."
Sir Charles Scott Sherrington, the president of the Royal Society announced on 30 November 1922:
The Manson Memorial Medal, this year instituted there for triennial award to work of special distinction in Tropical Medicine, is a tribute to Manson's work of example and leadership in that field of medical science.
First medal and modifications
After the first medal to Lady Manson, RSTMH decided to change the inscription to "Tropical Medicine and Hygiene." The first official medal was given to Sir David Bruce in 1923. Bruce had made pioneering studies and discoveries in tropical medicine. In 1886 he led the Malta Fever Commission that investigated an outbreak of Malta fever in Malta. He discovered that the disease was due to a bacterium, later named Brucella. In 1894, he discovered a protozoan parasite that caused animal sleeping sickness in Zululand. Then he led Sleeping Sickness Commission in 1902 to investigate the cause of human sleeping sickness. His team discovered that the infection was transmitted by the tsetse fly .The inscription had been changed to "Tropical Medicine. A.D. 1922" to commemorate the death year of Manson.
Recipients
The Manson Medal is given every three years since 1923, as follows:| Year | Recipient |
| 1923 | David Bruce |
| 1926 | Ettore Marchiafava |
| 1929 | Ronald Ross, FRS |
| 1932 | Theobald Smith |
| 1935 | John William Watson Stephens, FRS |
| 1938 | Leonard Rogers |
| 1941 | Emile Brumpt |
| 1944 | Rickard Christophers, FRS |
| 1947 | Charles Morley Wenyon |
| 1950 | Neil Hamilton Fairley, FRS |
| 1953 | Jerome Rodhain |
| 1956 | John Alexander Sinton, FRS |
| 1959 | Henry Edward Shortt, FRS |
| 1962 | Edmond Sergent |
| 1965 | Cyril Garnham, FRS |
| 1968 | John Smith Knox Boyd, FRS |
| 1971 | Gordon Covell |
| 1974 | Cecil Hoare |
| 1977 | James H S Gear |
| 1980 | Richard J W Rees |
| 1983 | Ralph Lainson, FRS |
| 1986 | William Trager |
| 1989 | David F Clyde |
| 1992 | Leonard Goodwin |
| 1995 | Philip Edmund Clinton Manson-Bahr |
| 1998 | David Weatherall |
| 2001 | Brian Greenwood |
| 2004 | Wallace Peters |
| 2007 | Herbert M Gilles |
| 2010 | Nicholas White |
| 2013 | David H Molyneux |
| 2016 | Peter Piot |
| 2019 | Janet Hemingway, FRS David Warrell |
| 2022 | Alimuddin Zumla |