Dr. Blasio Vincent Oriedo | |
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Blasio Vincent Oriedo circa 1962
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Born |
Ebwali Village, Bunyore, Kenya Colony |
15 September 1931
Died | 26 January 1966 Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya |
(aged 34)
Cause of death | Inexplicable |
Nationality | Kenyan |
Citizenship | Kenyan |
Education | Doctor of Medical Science in Public Health (DrPH) |
Occupation | Epidemiologist, parasitologist, physician, author, hygienist, medical research scientist |
Years active | 1948 –1966 |
Known for | Contribution to tropical medicine and public health; saved tens of thousands of aboriginal African lives by stemming a myriad of disease epidemics in colonial and postcolonial Kenya, the east and central African region, and the Sudan; and for medical research in the epidemiology of east African leishmaniasis. |
Relatives |
Esau Khamati Oriedo (father), Dr. J. Vincent B. Oriedo (son) |
Medical career | |
Profession | Epidemiologist, parasitologist, physician, author, hygienist, medical research scientist |
Field | Tropical medicine, public health, vector-borne epidemiological medical science |
Institutions | Ministry of Health and Housing, Kenya Medical Research Division of Insect-Borne Diseases, Kenya Colony Colonial Medical Services Medical Department of Kenya Colony East African High Commission’s Bureau of Research in Medicine and Hygiene |
Specialism | Leishmaniasis (kala-azar) |
Research | Tropical diseases |
Notable works |
Tropical diseases: 1952 Kala-azar (black fever) or visceral leishmaniasis epidemic; 1954 enteric/typhoid fever epidemic; 1960 Kwashiorkor epidemic; and 1950s/1960s plasmodium falciparum malaria epidemics |
Notable prizes | Tripartite laureate fellow; NIH Extramural (Medical) Researcher; Special Achievement and Contribution to Public Health—The East African Bureau of Research in Medicine and Hygiene;The Dutch Royal Institute fellow; Bukusu “Omukasa” |
Tropical diseases:
Studies in Epidemiology of East African Leishmaniasis
Dr. Blasio Vincent Oriedo, in full Dr. Blasio Vincent Ndale Esau Oriedo (born September 15, 1931, Ebwali Village in Bunyore, Kenya Colony—died January 26, 1966, Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya) was a distinguished pioneering African epidemiologist and a parasitological scientist known for his contributions to tropical medicine and stemming a myriad of disease epidemics in the colonial era and embryonic postcolonial Kenya, and in the countries of the East and Central African region, and the Sudan. He is especially credited for singlehandedly saving tens of thousands of native African lives from decimation due to an array of infectious diseases. His death in the springtime of life at age 34 was precipitously inexplicable, and has remained so to this day. Dr. Oriedo was a tripartite laureate; and a recipient of the coveted Extramural Medical Research Grant presented by the National Institute of Health (NIH), United States of America (U.S.A.). What is more, he was an academician, author, a linguist, and an East African statesman of his day. He was a close confidante of Thomas Joseph Odhiambo Mboya (d. 1969); and served as a member of Tom Mboya’s interdisciplinary economic development advisory team from 1965 till his death in January 1966. As a patron of the academics and intellectual infrastructures in East Africa, he is one of the unheralded silent forces behind the concept and impetus of the late 1950s - 1960s American academic scholarships for East African students; popularly dubbed the Mboya-Kennedy “Airlift to America” program. Moreover, he was renowned for his innate acumen to engender abidingly comprehensive polygonal interpersonal relationships with such international luminaries as Sir Philip Edmund Clinton Manson-Bahr (d. 1966) with whom he was close friends; and Dr. Apollo Milton Obote (d. 2005) twice president (1966–71, 1980–85) of Uganda.