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Stockholm Water Prize Won by US Public Health Pioneer
Colwell, 76, received the award for her "numerous seminal contributions towards solving the world's water and water-related public health problems," the jury of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) said.
Her work, especially on preventing the spread of cholera, "has established the basis for environmental and infectious disease risk assessment used around the world" and "is of the utmost global importance," it added in a statement.
The 76-year-old professor at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health was also honoured for being one of the first to study "the impact of climate change on the spread of disease," SIWI scientific director Per-Arne Malmqvist told a gathering in Stockholm where the prize was announced.
Cholera is a waterborne disease that each year affects between three and five million people worldwide and causes an estimated 120,000 deaths, according to SIWI.
In the 1960s, Colwell discovered that the bacteria that causes cholera can enter a dormant stage and later revert to an infectious state, meaning even when there are no disease outbreaks, rivers, lakes and oceans can serve as reservoirs for the bacteria.
"These findings counteracted the conventional wisdom held that cholera (could only enter) the environment ... due to release of sewage. As a result of her work, scientists are now able to link changes in the natural environment to the spread of disease," SIWI said.
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