Pioneering Indian paediatrician, prominent in his work in using ORS to treat diarrhoea and dehydration, Dr Dilip Mahalanabis has passed away at age 87.

During the Bangladeshi war for independence, he led the effort by the Johns Hopkins Center that saved lives through the effectiveness of oral rehydration therapy when cholera broke out in #1971 among the refugees.

ORS is recognized world-wide for being a cost-effective, quick solution to dehydration. The Lancet called it “the most important medical discovery of the 20th century.’’