Dr Beatriz Quiambao
Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), the Philippines – Rabies Hero March 2021
Dr Beatriz Quiambao received a Rabies Hero Award for her work on intradermal vaccines and vaccination schedules to save lives. She championed for years the access to rabies vaccination for people in the Philippines. She spent decades researching the intradermal administration of vaccines and investigating new schedules for shorter an efficient rabies post-exposure prophylaxis. This award recognizes her commitment focusing on efficient use of the vaccines to prevent deaths from rabies.
Receiving the award Dr Quiambao said:
“I have worked on rabies for more than 25 years, mainly as a researcher and later, as part of the Technical Working group for the rabies control program of the Philippines Department of Health. I have seen the agony of the last hours of a rabid patient and the hopelessness and despair in the eyes of their loved ones and in the hearts of the health workers who know that death is inevitable.
Rabies is a vaccine preventable disease for both animals and humans. With the current control strategies, no one has to die from rabies. Yet it continues to kill thousands of people each year. The world can be free from this dreadful deadly disease if we put our minds and resources together and collaborate. Let us do our part to make ours a rabies free world.”
Dr Quiambao has worked as pediatric infectious disease specialist at the RITM for the past 30 years. Her rabies work mainly entails doing clinical, epidemiologic and field research as well as training health care workers on the management of rabies exposures. She provides technical support to the National Rabies Prevention Program of the Philippines and is actively involved with various international rabies organizations.
See more about Dr. Quiambao’s work in pictures
