Local scientist makes it big

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/06/2011 (5217 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the pecking order for medical journals, Britain’s The Lancet leads the parade for prestige, so a new study on rising numbers of Indian women aborting female fetuses drew world attention.

The study has captured Winnipeg’s attention as well, but here the story is warm and fuzzy and less sensational. Think pride.

The scientist who led the study, University of Toronto epidemiologist Prabhat Jha, is a Winnipeg man, the 45-year-old father of two girls and a scientist who was raised to look for hidden realities. Jha was raised on Sanskrit proverbs.

“I was overwhelmed with calls from all over the world on this story as it was broadcast on the BBC,” said proud father Bidhu Jha. The calls came, first from Winnipeg when his son the scientist captured the journal’s front paper, and then there were calls from Great Britain and India.

Jha is the NDP MLA for Radisson and he fields lots of calls as a constituency politician. So when he describes himself as “overwhelmed,” that’s saying something.

His dad says Prabhat grew up in Manitoba, went to medical school at the University of Manitoba and, as a Rhodes Scholar, he studied at Oxford before going to the World Bank and the U of T, where he holds the Canada Research Chair of Health and Development and is the founding director of the Centre for Global Health Research.

“He considers Manitoba his home, and he has deep roots here,” his dad said.

Prabhat said he returns to Winnipeg to visit his parents and spent Easter with them in April. His former professor, the infectious disease expert Allan Ronald, and the work with Frank Plummer on AIDS in Kenya sparked his interest in global health and population health trends.

“Manitoba punched above its weight with that group,” Jha said.

Jha’s Lancet paper is the latest in a string of personal successes. He’s based in Toronto now but is frequently in India these days.

He’s leading a survey of 1.3 million Indian households in the Million Death Study. Most Indians still die at home, and the survey will gather information about their deaths. The findings are part of a blueprint on how Indian health is changing.

The Lancet report raised eyebrows in the scientific community with its conclusion; the number of abortions in India is rising when it should be falling, even as Indian women become better educated and wealthier.

Jha’s study found that as many as 12 million girls have gone “missing” from the population since 1985 because of the practice.

The prediction was better times would dampen abortion rates. When abortion rates instead rose, the finding surprised even the scientists who uncovered it.

India media frequently cite the illegal but widespread practice of paying dowry for brides as a reason why Indian women abort female fetuses and families favour sons over daughters.

Prabhat’s work leaves his father grateful, who said his three children have excelled in their fields.

“We went to see him off at the airport when he went to Oxford and my friend said, ‘Now, your son’s going to be making a lot of money,’ ” Bidhu recalled.

“You know what my son said to me? He said, ‘Dad I’m not a doctor who will make a lot of money. This doctor will do what doctors are supposed to do: save lives. And I said, ‘I’m proud of you, kid.'”

alexandra.paul@freeepress.mb.ca