Cholera Research Laboratory , Dacca

The Cholera Advisory Committee, headed by Dr Joseph Smadel, Associate Director of the NIH, was established to aid in developing a cholera research project in nations of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) as a result of the epidemic of cholera in Thailand in 1958. Initially the plan was to set up a research programme in Bangkok for a year, then arrangements would be made to establish a permanent SEATO research laboratory in Dacca, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). The laboratory in Bangkok was funded by both the Thai and US governments, and in the event continued until 1970 when it was replaced by a US Army Medical Research Laboratory. This was completely separate from the Pakistan-SEATO Cholera Research Laboratory (PSCRL). The PSCRL remained functioning throughout the war for indepedence in Bangladesh, although most of the US staff were evacuated. The CRL (Pakistan-SEATO was dropped) existed with no status and funding was affected. Negotions with the Governement of Bangladesh could only begin after the US had recognised the Government's independence. In 1978 the CRL became the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Research.

For fuller details of the background and the history of the project, see section E.