AWARD

Objectif

The unifying moment of the three days is the One Health Awards, intended for research excellence on the national and international scene, but also for the dissemination and commitment to the planet so that One Health, One Earth comes out more and more from the academic discussion to enter steadily in the public debate.

THE AWARDING

Winners

Here are the winners of the awards presented on the evening of 14 October:

Awarded
John Nkengasong

Motivation
The OHA 2024 Science Committee recognises and celebrates the achievements of those who dedicate their lives to improving the health and well-being of the world’s most vulnerable people. This year, Ambassador Dr John Nkengasong, the US State Department’s Global AIDS Coordinator and Special Representative for Health Diplomacy, was unanimously selected by the OHA 2024 Scientific Commission.
Dr John Nkengasong has a 30-year career of pioneering contributions to global health. He has spent much of his career innovating to eliminate global health inequalities at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention; pioneering the construction of the first state-of-the-art HIV laboratory in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; and serving as the first division head of the Global HIV and Tuberculosis Laboratory. In addition, he served as Acting Deputy Director of the CDC’s Centre for Global Health in Atlanta. He founded the African Society for Laboratory Medicine, the first organisation to build a network of health professionals who are now connected and coordinated across the African continent and beyond. He also founded theAfrican Journal ofLaboratory Medicine, a peer-reviewed and open access journal. Most importantly, he has helped to create a new generation of scientists, activists and global health diplomats who are helping to raise awareness of the importance of international cooperation in health.
In early 2022, President Biden selected Dr John Nkengasong to lead the Presidential Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. This represents the largest commitment in history by any nation to address and mitigate the impact of a single disease, to prevent millions of HIV infections, and to save lives.

Awarded
Heinrich Feldmann

Motivation
During yesterday’s lectio magistralis, we got to know the scientific skills and achievements of Heinz Feldmann and the research groups he coordinates, the same day yesterday, we talked about Ebola, a disease for which, until the terrible 2014 epidemic in West Africa, there was no vaccine. The numbers, until then, did not justify large investments by pharmaceutical companies, making it necessary for government research agencies to develop the vaccine, especially in light of the events of 11 September 2001 and the danger of bioterrorism.
Heinz Feldman therefore began developing a vaccine for Ebola while working in Canada and later at the NIH in the US. The vaccine developed by his team is based on a weakened, genetically modified version of the vesicular stomatitis virus -which affects some animals- so that it would produce an Ebola protein and thus a protective immune response.
The vaccine developed, called Ervebo, became available for use towards the end of the outbreak in West Africa in 2014. Since then, it has been used to stop any further Ebola outbreaks, such as recent ones in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Now a standard tool, Ervebo is administered through a process called ‘ring vaccination’, in which, as soon as a case is identified and confirmed, a team tracks down the patient’s contacts and offers them the vaccine. This creates a protective ring of immunity around the first case to prevent further transmission to the wider community.
This is why the scientific committee of the OHA 2024 is honoured to award Dr Feldmann for his efforts in developing Ervebo, a vaccine that has saved the lives of thousands of people.

Awarded
Dott. Frate Rosario Iannetti

Motivation
Dr. Fr. Iannetti, after specialising in Emergency Surgery and First Aid at the University of Bologna in June 1993, began to gain experience as an assistant surgeon at the missionary hospital in Aber, in the Lira district of Uganda, and then at the Regional Hospital of Iringa in Tanzania.
From September to November 1994 he went to the ALERT centre in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) to obtain a certificate in septic, preventive and rehabilitative surgery for leprosy. He then stayed in Ethiopia to work in the missionary hospital in Atat while waiting for his visa to enter Sudan, where he had been assigned for missionary work.
In January 1995 he arrived in Khartoum and on 25 February 1995 in Wau, South Sudan. In February 2002, at the request of the bishop of the Rumbek diocese, Mgr Cesare Mazzolari, he founded the Mary Immaculate Diocesan Hospital in Mapuordit, South Sudan, which he then directed as medical director until November 2016.
During this time, in 2001, he took perpetual vows as a Combonian missionary brother.
From December 2016 to June 2020 he worked as a surgeon in the St. Daniel Comboni Diocesan Hospital in Wau, of which he was also medical director from September 2017 to 2020.
From July 2020 until now (September 2024) he is again medical director of the Maria Immacolata Diocesan Hospital in Mapuordit, Rumbek Diocese.
TheMary ImmaculateHospital was established in February 2002 in Mapuordit (Rumbek Diocese), a village lost in the savannah of about 5,000 inhabitants, most of whom had fled in April 1992 from the town of Yirol, 65 km east of Mapuordit, when the Khartoum army had retaken the town from the SPLA rebel soldiers, massacring the civilians who had not managed to escape in time.
The hospital, which at the beginning had only 40 beds in prefabricated buildings and huts, grew rapidly thanks to the contribution of the Italian and Slovakian Cooperation and donations from various missionary groups and church donors from Europe, America and Australia, and today has 136 beds divided into 6 wards in permanent buildings, in addition to the various services offered by a regional reference hospital (operating theatre, radiology, laboratory, etc.).
The Mary Immaculate Hospital has proved to be a formidable pre-evangelisation tool among the Dinka and Jur populations of Eastern Lakes State and Amadi State.
The hospital is also a place of encounter and dialogue between the different tribes and clans, who interact with each other both as workers and as patients and their relatives.
The hospital has always been a place of education and training for dozens of young paramedics and doctors who now serve in dozens of hospitals and dispensaries throughout South Sudan.
The Scientific Jury of the OHA 2024 wanted to award this year’s prize to the contribution of Dr. Fratel Rosario Iannetti, a Combonian missionary, who has dedicated and dedicates his life to improving the physical and spiritual health of the most vulnerable people in South Sudan.

JURY

The Scientific Committee

Giacomo
Migliorati

Born in Sant’Omero (TE) in 1956, Giacomo Migliorati graduated in veterinary medicine at the University of Bologna in 1982 and specialised at the University of Parma. He began his professional experience in 1983 with a scholarship for research activities at the IZS dell’Abruzzo e del Molise, of which he became veterinary assistant in 1990. He was a lecturer in Inspection of Food of Animal Origin at the School of Specialisation of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Teramo and at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of L’Aquila. In 1994 he became head of the Laboratory of Food of Animal Origin at the IZSAM. He has always been involved in food safety, also training in the USA, at the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the United States Department of Agrigulture. In 2001, he joined the management staff of the IZSAM. Over the years, as an expert and delegate of the Italian Ministry of Health, he has participated in several European and international meetings on food contaminants, dioxins and meat exports to the USA. From 7 July to 2 August 2012, he held the position of F.F. Director General, and from 26 September 2012 to 3 July 2014 the position of Health Director of the IZSAM. In February 2020, he was again appointed as Sanitary Director of the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise.

Stefano
Bertuzzi

CEO of the American Society for Microbiology. He has been executive director of the American Society for Cell Biology and scientific executive for the National Institutes of Health.

Nicola
D'Alterio

Born in 1970 in Torino di Sangro, in the province of Chieti, Dr Nicola D’Alterio graduated with honours in veterinary medicine from the University of Bologna in 1996. At the same University, he specialised in Animal Nutrition and later obtained an international master’s degree in ‘Food Safety of Animal Products’.

From 2002 to 2005 he served as veterinary manager at the Avezzano-Sulmona ASL. From 2005 to February 2017 he worked at the Lanciano-Vasto-Chieti ASL where he was mainly involved in food safety. Previously, he collaborated in research programmes with the University of Bologna and the University of Chieti-Pescara.

In 2008, he was elected councillor in his hometown, and in March 2012 he joined the Provincial Council of Chieti.
In August 2012, he was appointed member of the IZSAM Board of Directors by designation of the Abruzzo Region, in July 2015 he was confirmed as a member of the Board of Directors by designation of the Ministry of Health: a position he held until 9 February 2017 when he was appointed Medical Director. From January 2019 to January 2020, he held the position of Acting General Manager. In January 2020, Dr Nicola D’Alterio was appointed Director General of the IZS of Abruzzo and Molise ‘G. Caporale’.

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John Nkengasong

John N. Nkengasong has been US Coordinator for Global AIDS since 2022.

In 2023, he and US Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken launched the State Department’s Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy (GHSD), which he heads as Senior Bureau Official for Global Health Security and Diplomacy.

The GHSD is the Department’s coordinating body for work to strengthen global health security to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS; it also elevates and integrates global health security as a central component of US national security and foreign policy.
As Senior Bureau Official, Ambassador Nkengasong leads US diplomatic efforts, leverages and helps coordinate US foreign assistance, and promotes international cooperation at the national, regional, and multilateral levels to better protect the United States and the world from health threats.
The GHSD is now home to the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
Led by Ambassador Nkengasong, PEPFAR is the largest commitment by any nation to tackle a single disease in history, prevent millions of HIV infections, save lives, and make progress towards ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic as a global health threat.
In 2017, Ambassador Nkengasong was appointed the first director of the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
With his leadership, a framework has been created to transform the Africa CDC into a fully autonomous health agency of the African Union.

Ambassador Nkengasong supported the creation of policy frameworks to guide countries to strengthen their public health institutions and implemented a system to collect national surveillance data.

He also led the response to COVID-19 in Africa, coordinating with heads of state and government across the continent. Among other achievements during the COVID-19 pandemic, he helped secure 400 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines at the height of the vaccine shortage. During his tenure, he was appointed one of the World Health Organisation’s Special Envoys for COVID-19 preparedness and response.
Ambassador Nkengasong served as the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division Chief for Global HIV and Tuberculosis and Associate Director for Laboratory Science.

Ambassador Nkengasong has received numerous prestigious awards and honours. Most recently, he was one of the World Health Organisation Director-General’s special envoys for COVID-19.
In 2021, Ambassador Nkengasong was recognised among Time magazine’s 100 most influential people, where he was described as ‘a modern-day hero’. Other accolades include the US Secretary of Health and Human Services Award for Excellence in Public Health Protection Research, the Shepard Award, the US Director’s Recognition Award, and the William Watson Medal of Excellence, the highest award bestowed by the CDC, which he received for outstanding contributions and leadership in advancing global laboratory services and programmes in support of PEPFAR.

Heinrich Feldmann

Medical Doctor, Chief Laboratory of Virology, and the Chief Scientist of the BSL4 Laboratories at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH and a Faculty Affiliate with the University of Montana. He is the laboratory expert on high containment pathogens and serves as a consultant on emerging viruses for the World Health Organization. He has field experience and expertise in outbreak management. His research interest is in the pathogenesis and transmission of emerging viral pathogens, and the development of countermeasures against those pathogens. His major scientific achievements of public health significance are the design and foundation of on-site mobile laboratory support, the establishment of diverse animal disease models, and the development of treatments (e.g. antibodies, polymerase inhibitors) and vaccines (e.g. VSV-EBOV) for emerging/re-emerging viral pathogens. 

Dott. Frate Rosario Iannetti

Dr. Rosario Iannetti is currently the Medical Director of the Maria Immacolata Diocesan Hospital in Mapuordit, Diocese of Rumbek, South Sudan, a position he has held since July 2020. With decades of experience in both medicine and missionary work, he has played a key role in the development of several mission hospitals in Africa, particularly in Uganda and South Sudan.

After earning his degree in Medicine and Surgery in 1988 and specializing in Emergency and Trauma Surgery in 1993, Dr. Iannetti has devoted much of his professional and missionary life to serving the most disadvantaged communities in Africa. He has led health centers and hospitals in challenging environments, including war-torn regions, such as the National Leprosy Training Centre (NLTC) in Wau, Sudan, where he served as Medical Director from 1995 to 1999.

In 2002, at the request of the Bishop of Rumbek, he founded the Maria Immacolata Diocesan Hospital in Mapuordit, which he directed until 2016, helping it grow from a 40-bed facility to a regional referral hospital with 136 beds. After a period as Medical Director and Surgeon at St. Daniel Comboni Hospital in Wau, he returned to lead the Maria Immacolata Hospital in 2020, continuing his tireless commitment to improving the health of local communities.