Thanks to the work of Professor Ruth Bishop 10,000 Australian children won’t need to go to hospital this year and half a million young lives could be saved worldwide every year.

Today Ruth was awarded the 2013 CSL Florey Medal for her work, which has inspired a revolution in public health. The CSL Florey Medal honours Australian researchers who have made significant achievements in biomedical science and/or in advancing human health.

In 1973 Ruth, along with Brian Ruck, Geoffrey Davidson and Ian Holmes from The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) and the University of Melbourne’s microbiology department found a virus, now known as rotavirus. They showed it was the cause of an acute gastroenteritis that was hospitalising 10,000 Australian children every year and killing more than half a million children worldwide.

The discovery initiated a life’s work for Ruth – understanding the virus, working out how it spreads and fighting back with treatments and vaccines, advising the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As a result, vaccination against ‘gastro’ has been part of the National Immunisation Program for all Australian infants since July 2007. And the number of hospital admissions has dropped by more than 70 per cent.

By 2015, 50 million children in the poorest countries will be vaccinated by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), and their partners, supported by the Gates Foundation. Figures available from Bolivia, the first low-income country to take part in the program, show a drop of about three-quarters of all hospitalisations.

Ruth is now in her eighties, and is an Esteemed Honorary Fellow at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and says she won’t be fully satisfied until a new vaccine they’re developing for becomes available. The vaccine is intended for newborns, which is vital because it’s “the only time children in many developing countries are likely to be near a hospital,” Ruth says. The vaccine is currently being trialled in Indonesia and New Zealand.

In winning the CSL Florey Medal, Ruth joins an elite bunch of Australian medical researchers including Ian Frazer, Barry Marshall and Graeme Clark. We congratulate Ruth on her leading, dedicated and inspiring work, improving the health and saving the lives of so many children across the world.