ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA, June 18, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Roy F.R. Scragg, MD, with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Dr. Scragg celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Having accrued 72 years of inimitable experience as an epidemiologist, Dr. Scragg has contributed to several books and many scientific papers. He was the founding editor of the Papua New Guinea Medical Journal now in its 65th year.
He joined the Papua New Guinea Department of Public Health in 1947 and, as its director from 1957 to 1970, he was a Member of the PNG Legislative Council which became the House of Assembly. As director, he oversaw the initiation of services and the establishment of institutions to educate PNG people in all medical and health professions to provide a communitywide health service. This resulted in the PNG expectation of life of 30 years in 1950 increasing to 52 by 1980. He facilitated seminal epidemiological studies relevant to world health of Jakob-Creutzfeldt disease (kuru), neonatal cretinism, enteritis necroticans, neonatal tetanus and pneumococcal disease. In 1970 he became PNG University foundation Professor of Social and Preventive Medicine. In 1974 he became foundation director of the South Australian Postgraduate Medical Education Association retiring in 1982.
His seminal demographic and gynaecological study from 1950 of childless women in the rapidly declining population of the Tabar Islands east of New Ireland, undertaken after all Tabar inhabitants received a penicillin injection, uncovered the hidden role of gonorrhoea in promiscuous societies. In 1975, WHO considered that: "The most complete epidemiological study on the prevalence of infertility, pregnancy wastage, and child loss is that by Scragg on New Ireland in the West Pacific". In his most recent publication: "Community Infertility in Papua New Guinea"; in "The Hidden Affliction", editor Simon Szreter. Rochester University Press, (2019), he traces endemic childlessness back through European societies to the oliganthropia reported by Polybius and Cicero in the Spartans and Romans. It is evident that the commensal gonococcus of Leviticus 15 had mutated to become a tissue invading organism and was, for over 2000 years, a persistent damper on world population growth. The cure of gonorrhoea by penicillin is a major factor in the current world population explosion.
Born in Feilding, New Zealand, Dr. Scragg graduated in medicine at Adelaide University in 1946. He was awarded his doctorate in Medicine for his thesis on depopulation in 1955 and an honorary Doctor of the University in 2014. He attended the Sydney School of Public Health, where he earned a Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 1950, and Master of Public Health in 1982. Dr. Scragg is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators. Among his other professional involvements, he is a past president of the Australian Society for Epidemiology and Research into Community Health.
In 1971, Dr. Scragg was recognized with an Officer Award from the Order of the British Empire. A celebrated Marquis listee, he has been cited in the 28th and 29th editions of Who's Who in the World. An adherent of the Adventist Christian faith, Dr. Scragg has been married to his wife, Elsie Joy Hann, since 1949, and together they are the parents of four children.
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