Great contributors to leprosy: Dr. Robert Cochrane and
Schieffelin Leprosy Centre, Karigiri, Tamil Nadu, India
S. Tharakaram Borough Green Dermatology Unit, Medway
Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Borough Green, U.K.
Dr. Robert Greenhill Cochrane (1899–1985) was born of missionary
parents in Pei-Tei-Ho, China in 1899. As an infant barely 6 months old, he, his
parents and two brothers were captured by the Boxers and released after the
entreaties of their Chinese helper. His father Dr. Thomas Cochrane founded the
Peking Union Medical College with the financial help of the Dowager Empress of
China. After schooling in London, he graduated in medicine in 1924 from Glasgow
and after some training at St Bartholomew’s Hospital he passed the Conjoint
Diplomas MRCS, LRCP and the DTM&H of the London School
of Tropical Medicine. As a medical student he had a dream that he had found a
cure for leprosy. This dream was kindled when he sat at the feet of the veteran
leprologist Dr. Ernest Muir, head of the then newly created Department of Leprosy,
Calcutta Medical College and Hospital. He was initially appointed chief medical
officer to the Lady Willingdon Leprosy Sanatorium. Dr. Cochrane’s hard and
sincere working day started early at 5 a.m. and ended past the small hours of
mid-night. In 1944, Dr.Cochrane was appointed professor and head of the
Dermatology Department, Christian Medical College, Vellore and later as
principal; he still continued teaching at Madras and Stanley Medical Colleges
as well. Dr. Cochrane was the first to use dapsone in leprosy after
consultation with the chemists of Imperial Chemical Industries who were using a
suspension of diamino diphenyl sulphone as an injection to treat streptococcal
mastitis in cows. Initially, dapsone was given by injection to patients with
leprosy but the tablet form followed soon. CIBA 1906 (thiambutosine) and B663
(lamprene or clofazimine) were developed as a result of his encouragement to
research into newer anti leprosy drugs. As a professor at the Christian Medical
College, Vellore he held a fellowship meeting every month attended by Prof.
C.K. Job a sa medical student. He was a devout Christian and his faith and wholehearted
commitment to his Master, Lord Jesus Christ, gave him the spirit, strength and
devotion to carry on his work. He was awarded the Kaiser-I-Hind Gold Medal for
his contributions to leprosy. Predeceased by his first wife Ivy, he remarried
Jeannie who looked after him, nursing him through illness until his death. Of
his three children by his first wife, two became doctors and one of the doctors
continues Dr. Cochrane’s great work in leprosy by serving with the Leprosy Mission
in Bangladesh.
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