Kovalevskaia Prize honours Vietnamese scientist
Associate Prof. Dr. Le Thi Luan, who has spent 16 years studying and producing Rotavin-M1, an anti-diarrhoea vaccine for children, will be presented with the prestigious Vietnam Kovalevskaia Prize at a ceremony in Hanoi on March 8.
With Rotavin-M1, which has been sold on the market since August 2012, Vietnam has become the second country in Asia and the fourth in the world to produce the vaccine.
The 52-year-old Deputy Director of the Centre for the Reach and Production of Vaccines and Biologicals under the Ministry of Health has devoted 24 years in her life to this specific field.
The initiative to produce the vaccine was raised in 1998 when she took part in a World Health Organisation programme to prevent diarrhoea among Vietnamese children.
At that time, many Vietnamese children suffered as there were not enough vaccines to treat it.
Nearly 100,000 children in 60 cities and provinces have so far received Rotavin-M1, which costs one-third the price of imported vaccines.
According to Luan, as many as 6,800 Vietnamese children under five years old with diarrhoea will be successfully treated each year thanks to the vaccine.
Rotavin-M1 has been evaluated by the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, and approved for use by the National Institute for Control of Vaccines and Biologicals.
On this occasion, the Kovalevskaia Prize will also be awarded to Associate Prf. Dr. Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy from the Institute for Transport Science and Technology under the Ministry of Transport for her successful scientific research.
The prestigious prize, named after the great Russian female mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaia, is awarded to female academics with excellent achievements in sciences or arts and humanities. The Vietnam Kovalevskaia was established in 1985.