WHY NOT BHARAT RATNA TO GREAT MEDICAL SCIENTIST AND MAN OF MIRACLE DRUGS Dr.YELLAPRAGADA SUBBA RAO ?

8/10/2019 WHY NOT BHARAT RATNA TO GREAT MEDICAL SCIENTIST AND MAN OF MIRACLE DRUGS Dr.YELLAPRAGADA SUBBA RAO ?

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Anumakonda Jagadeesh Facebook 25 December 2014

WHY NOT BHARAT RATNA TO GREAT MEDICAL

SCIENTIST AND MAN OF MIRACLE DRUGSDr.YELLAPRAGADA SUBBA RAO ?

It is pity that a great Scientist,Humanist like Dr.Yellapragada SubbaRao was never honoured in his home country in a fitting way.

Rarely, extremely rarely, a person comes on the world scene and transformsscience and our l ives by making a large number of major discov eries in andotherwise makes impo r tant co ntr ibut ions to more than one basic field and do es notonly n ot get a Nobel Prize but does no t get to be known by name to mos t people,

includ ing sc ientists around the world. I am referr ing to Yellapragada SubbaRow.

Such an indiv idual is perhaps born onc e in a thous and years or more. I do not

bel ieve there is any other person in the documented history o f biology and m edicine

over the last 5,000 years who m ade such a large num ber of basic d iscov eries that are

applied so widelyDr.P.M.Bhargava.

It is never too late to correct a mistake.

Narendra Modiji,you have respect for Scientists

and human values. Will you please considerawarding BHARAT RATNA to Dr.YellapragadaSubba Rao.

Dr. Yellapragada Subbarao - The Forgotten Hero Posted by Doctors Hangout on April 3, 2013 at 9:08pm

By - Dr. Sushruth AthreyaThose were the dark days when people used to die of fever. A simple

bacterial infection used to be fatal. Under such circumstances wasdiscovered the first successful commercially marketable antibiotic of themodern era which revolutionized the field of medicine (I have carefully usedthe words here as I am aware that turmeric was used over centuries inIndia as an effective antibiotic)
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To this day, Penicillin, the archetype of antibiotics remains a popular drugof choice for many infections and the fact that Alexander Flemingdiscovered penicillin is known even by school going children.Now even as we celebrate the contributions of Dr Fleming to modernmedicine here is a glaring paradox.

This is the dark age of cancer. Various cancers kill millions of peopleacross the globe. There is on going research to develop various anticancerdrugs. There are super-rich pharmaceutical companies claiming patentover various anticancer drugs that has resulted in sky-rocketing prices ofthese drugs keeping them beyond the reach of the common man.However did you know that the scientist who developed one of the firstanticancer drugs did not claim patent to his discovery? He didn't even gainpopularity like other scientists (or should I say western scientists?) Henever tried to acquire fame which is so sought after by one and all. He wasnot even accorded due recognition for his phenomenal discoveries. Hequietly remained in the background unnoticed and unacknowledged.It fills with pride to note that such a magnanimous scientist was an Indian. Iam certain most people including doctors wouldn't have heard ofYellapragada Subbarao, the developer of Methotrexate a wonderfulchemotherapeutic agent that is found to be useful not only against cancerbut also against many debilitating auto-immune diseases like Rheumatoid

Arthritis, Lupus, Psoriasis etc.

He discovered a drug for Filariasis as well and discovered the role ofAdenosine Triphosphate (ATP) in muscular activity. Yet no Nobel prize wasawarded !

His name doesn't find a mention even in our medical books though mostdoctors are very familiar with and use routinely the drugs he invented.What is striking to note is the unostentatiousness of this great scientist who

gave to humanity two wonderful drugs. In spite of being a man of highcaliber, like those typical Indians of a bygone era, he remained hidden fromthe public eye, untouched by any fanfare.

Years later someone rightly said You've probably never heard of Dr.Yellapragada Subbarao. Yet because he lived you may be alive and are


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He was very much influenced by Mahatma Gandhi during freedom struggle( Mahatma Means great soul), (Mahatma Gandhi is the father of IndianNation). In non co-operation movement, He wore Khadi clad (Hand spunclothes) and went to college. In medicine, though he passed all subjectswith good marks. But he was given lesser marks in Surgery awarded, by anAnglican partial racist professor. So he was awarded L.M.S instead ofM.B.B.S Degree.

His elder brother Purushottam and another brother Krishna murthy bothwere dead of "spru" decease. He was deeply effected and moved by theseuntimely deaths. He decided to invent a medicine to prevent and cure"Spru" decease, with the help of a non governmental charitable trust ofKakinada ( A costal town in East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh,India) in 1923 September he set sail for U.S.A. After his arrival to U S A, hiswife gave birth to a male child in a couple of months. His nine months childwas dead of a dreadful decease "Sappi" (Herpes). In liveried poverty hecontinued his studies at "Boston", by doing petty jobs. He got professorsappreciation and won many scholarships.

For the first time in the history of medicine Dr. Yella pragada Subba Rao'sname came to lime light in 1924, with the association of professor Pesco .He invented " Rapid calorie metric method " to estimate "phosphorouselement" in human cells in easy and accurate. This method is named after

the two researchers "Pesco-Subba Rao method ". Later he identified with "Adenosis tri phosphate" which is the root matter to the power of muscles inbody. He proved this is the root cause for physical movements of life. Withthis innovative research he proved Noble Awardees researchers researchin 1922 was went wrong. He proved this with clear-cut research andanalysis. Though he made a great research of worth, he was not awardedNoble Prize.

In 1930 he got his doctorate (PhD) from Harvard University, U S A..

Though he was great researcher in medicine, he never run after awards. Inrecognizing his great dedicated research thence "LEDRLE" PharmaceuticalCompany appointed him their director. Even some of his invented antibiotic medicines named after him as "Subbo Mycin", "Subburo Mycin" byledrle to honour Yella Pragada with love and affection. He continued"Ledrle's director" till his last breath.


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In the year 1948, on Aug 9th Yella Pragada died of a massive heart attack.On his death the American Press praised him as 21st century's forerunnermedical researcher, life saver, and a doctor to remember to the futuregenerations.

He is the heart of millions of people. Though the countries not recognizedhis services in a deemed fit manner, People did and do. Millions recall himas their life saver. The invented medicines are gifts of God in the humanform. As a great doctor, As a life saver, Medicinist,Researcher, he reachedthe heights and the peaks of the mighty Himalayas.

Most of the famous scientists around the world are known only for one

major discovery that has had a lasting impact on our lives : WilhelmRoentgen for x-rays, Marie Curie for radium, C V Raman for the scatteringof light by liquids, P M S Blackett for cosmic rays, Ronald Ross for the lifecycle of the malarial parasite, Alexander Fleming for penicillinall awardedthe Nobel Prize for their one major discovery. There have been a fewscientists known for two discoveries : Albert Einstein for the photoelectriceffect and the theory of relativity, John Bardeen for transistors and super-conductivity, Hargobind Khurana for the genetic code and synthesis ofgene. Occasionally a scientist makes a large number of discoveries albeitin only one field like Robert Woodward in organic chemistry. Then there arepersons who have made important contributions but have not received theNobel Prize or equivalent honours like Jonas Salk who made the first poliovaccine, Michael Heidelberger the father of modern immunology, G NRamachandran who discovered the structure of collagen, the mostabundant protein in our body and also laid the foundations for CT scan andNMR technologies. Rarely, extremely rarely, a person comes on the worldscene and transforms science and our lives by making a large number ofmajor discoveries inand otherwise makes important contributions tomore than one basic field and does not only not get a Nobel Prize but does

not get to be known by name to most people, including scientists aroundthe world. I am referring to Yellapragada SubbaRow. Such an individual isperhaps born once in a thousand years or more. I do not believe there isany other person in the documented history of biology and medicine overthe last 5,000 years who made such a large number of basic discoveriesthat are applied so widely. SubbaRow was born in India in 1895 and hedied in USA in 1948 at the young age of 53. He went to the United States in


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1923 after graduating from the Madras Medical College and worked atHarvard Medical School until 1940 when he went to Lederle Laboratories todirect its medical research.

The search he directed at Lederle Laboratories for antibiotics with wider

range of cures than the then available penicillin and streptomycin led to thediscovery of polymyxin widely used even today in cattle-feed andaureomycin the first of tetracycline antibiotics which all of us have hadsome time or the other in our lives. Tetracyclines have saved millions oflives over the last 50 years. Aureomycin was presented to medicine in1948, the year SubbaRow died. It was the first broadspectrumantibiotic, that is, one effective against both gram-positive and gram-negative germs. It was thus more powerful than either Flemingspenicillin or Waksmans streptomycin. When SubbaRows centenary yearbegan in 1994, tetracyclinesespecially doxycyclinehelpedconfine and then eradicate the plague epidemic that broke out in Gujaratand Maharashtra. It was a debt SubbaRow paid to his motherland almosthalf a century after death which claimed him soon after the unveiling ofAureomycin before a medical gathering at the New York Academy ofSciences. oxycycline, the third generation tetracycline, has recently beencleared as a malaria preventive. The international staff of the UnitedNations Assistance Mission in East Timor (UNMET) packed it in theirsurvival kits when ordered last year into the region wrested fromIndonesia.

Dr. Yellapragada SubbaRow (1895-1948) He Transformed Science;Changed Lives, Pushpa Mitra Bhargava, Journal, Indian Academy ofClinical Medicine Vol. 2, No. 1 and 2 January-June 2001.

Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),IndiaChairmanDr.Yellapragada Subba Rao Foundation

DirectorNayudamma Centre for Development AlternativesNellore(AP),India


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WHY NOT BHARAT RATNA TO GREAT MEDICAL SCIENTIST AND MAN OF MIRACLE DRUGS Dr.YELLAPRAGADA SUBBA RAO ?

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