Mohamed Hamad Satti

Mohamed Hamad Satti (, 1913 – 15 March 2005) was a Sudanese physician that is remembered as The father of Medical research in Sudan. He had a very philanthropic approach to medicine, and was known for being an entertaining educator who linked scientific information with stories from his fieldwork. Satti received the Shousha Prize from the World Health Organization, and the Order of the Two Niles. Dr Satti Foundation for medical research was created in his honour.

Life and career

Early life and education Mohamed Hamad Satti was born in Shendi, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, in 1913. When he was 15, his father died. thumb

Satti then started his medical training working as a medical officer in areas endemic to Leishmaniasis between 1936 and 1946 including Singa and Port-Sudan. He joined Stack Medical Research Laboratories in 1946, before moving to the United Kingdom and completing a postgraduate degree in internal medicine (1952–1954) where he was also the President of the Sudanese Student Society in the UK. Once he was back in Sudan, he was appointed as a medical zoologist, where he started with a study on a visceral leishmaniasis outbreak in 1956, before going to the United States and completing a master's degree in public health at Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore. He laid the foundation of several laboratories and tropical medicine research centres in Sudan which include the National Health Laboratories, the Cancer Institute for Tropical Diseases Research, the Medical Research Council (1966), the School of Tropical Medicine (1966), the National Council for Research (1970), and the Institute of Medical Laboratory Technology. He worked with WHO as a consultant epidemiologist and public health advisor to study the environmental effects of Lake Nasser in 1970. He was the Vice Chairman of the WHO Onchocerciasis Expert Committee in 1986.

Personal life and death

Satti was married to Fatma Hassan el Nor and with her, they had thirteen children. He died from natural causes on 15 March 2005, and was buried in Faroug Cemetery, Khartoum.

Research 1st row from left, Mansour Haseeb, HV Morgan and Satti. 2nd row, far left, Ahmed M. El Hassan. ca. 1965 Satti carried out extensive field and laboratory work on leishmaniasis in eastern and southern Sudan, yellow fever in the Nuba Mountains and Kurmuk, Klumpke paralysis and cutaneous larva migrans in Kordofan, onchocerciasis in Bahr el Ghazal, presbycusis in the Mabans tribe living southern Funj, the adverse effects of the consumption of high-nitrate-well-water in two villages in North Kordofan, and health aspects of Rahad Irrigation Project.

He presented his research at the first Italian Conference of Tropical Medicine in East Africa, Asmara, in 1952, and the International Congress of Tropical Medicine and Malaria (1958–1986). He left a legacy of scientific excellence that earned him the name ''The father of Medical research in Sudan.

Awards and honours Satti received an Honorary Doctor of Science in 1980 from the University of Khartoum. He received the Shousha Prize from the World Health Organization in 1985,