Independent. ie: His daughter, Dr Mairead Hannon, interviewed by the Independent said: “I knew a bit about what he was doing and I used to visit him in the laboratory. I remember him being a very hard worker. I knew he was working on tuberculosis, which was really the big disease of the time.
“Then eventually TB started to become more manageable. From the bacteriological point of view, TB and leprosy are similar diseases. That is when he became interested in investigating the potential of his work in connection with leprosy,” she said.
His research took him to India where he visited a leper colony. He also worked closely with a leprosy officer in Zimbabwe.
Leading a team of nine scientists, he synthesised a compound called B663 (Clofazimine), which went on to become part of the multi-drug antibiotic therapy used around the world in the treatment of leprosy.
Another member of the team, Stanley McElhinney, from Milford, Co Donegal, negotiated the introduction of B663 with the Indian government in the early 1970s. By 1981 the World Health Organisation had made it the mandatory treatment for leprosy. Read more here.
