Dr Masaji Okada presents the Princess Chichibu Memorial Global Tuberculosis Award to Professor Amina (Credit: The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease)
Nadine Osman
Professor Amina Jindani was awarded the 2019 Princess Chichibu Memorial Global Tuberculosis Award for her lifelong work on the disease at a ceremony at the 50th Union World Conference on Lung Health, held in Hyderabad, India, on October 31.
The Award, in memory of Princess Chichibu of the Imperial Japanese Royal Family, is conferred each year by the Japanese Anti-Tuberculosis Association in collaboration with the Paris-based International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.
The award is given to an outstanding individual in recognition of his/her distinguished contribution to international anti-tuberculosis activities.
Dr Masaji Okada, representing the association and on behalf of Princess Akishino, the present patroness, conferred the Award on Professor Jindani whom he referred to as a “global leader of tuberculosis treatment and drug development…whose work, which has been published in various highly-ranked journals [has] contributed to policy documents of a number of international agencies including the WHO.”
Dr Okada referred to Jindani’s seminal clinical trials in recent years and to the contribution, these have made to the field of tuberculosis research.
Jindani, winner of 2018 The Muslim News Ibn Sina Award for Excellence in Health, thanked her late parents “for giving me the best education that any Muslim girl could ever receive” and the late Professor Denny Mitchison, a leading world authority under whom she worked for many years. Reminding the audience that “we have a long way to go”, Jindani stressed, “but I am still on the case!”
Professor Jindani is at present coordinating a multicentre clinical trial involving centres in Asia, Africa and Latin America with the aim of reducing the present tuberculosis treatment duration from the current six months four months.
On the same day that the Princess Chichubu Award was announced, Professor Jindani was conferred the full title of Professor of Tuberculosis by St Georges, University of London.