Mathuram Santosham

Mathuram Santosham is an Indian American physician who is Professor and chair at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Santosham is best known for his work on oral rehydration therapy and childhood vaccines, with a focus on supporting people from indigenous communities.

Early life and education Santosham was born to John Wilfred Santosham and Flora Selvanayagam in Vellore. His father was part of the Indian diplomatic service. At the age of twelve, Santosham moved to Glasgow, where he attended boarding school. His research looked to learn from the heritage of Southwestern tribes and improve tribal health through training and empowerment. He considered health issues that were most crucial to Native communities, including infectious diseases, substance abuse, HIV/AIDS and diabetes. As part of this work, Santosham championed the use of the oral rehydration therapy (now known as pedialyte) to treat diarrheal dehydration. At the time, the medical community were skeptical about the effectiveness of pedialyte. Santosham reformulated the treatment, training a team of outreach workers to support parents in identifying the recommended doses. It was later estimated that this treatment had saved fifty million lives. Santosham worked closely with Native American communities to disseminate these vaccinations. When the study started, only 20% of countries eligible for support from GAVI had introduced the vaccination. 2013 Radha Pathak Humanitarian Award 2014 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Fries Prize for Improving Health

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