Dr. Milhous Receives Top Award for Malaria Expertise

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Wilbur Milhous, PhD, associate dean and global health professor, with LePrince Medal

A leading international malaria expert, Wilbur Milhous’ career has spanned five continents. He has spent his life tracking drug-resistant strains of malaria and promoting global health initiatives to prevent and combat the mosquito-borne tropical disease.

This fall, Dr. Milhous, professor of global health and associate dean for research at the USF College of Public Health, was awarded the prestigious LePrince Medal for outstanding contributions to the study of malaria. He is the latest of only 22 recipients of the medal, which the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene has awarded once every three years since 1951 (including twice to two recipients).

The inaugural medal went to its namesake Joseph Augustin LePrince, a pioneer in the malaria control vital to the Panama Canal’s construction in the early 20th century. LePrince was the first to control mosquito populations by eradicating them in urban dwellings. The award, considered one of the most prestigious in the field, has been bestowed upon a "who’s who” list of malaria scientists, primarily from the United Kingdom and the United States.

"At least seven of the previous LePrince Medal recipients were instrumental in mentoring and shaping my future, so I am especially grateful and now have a daily reminder to serve as a mentor to students in our own program at USF,” Dr. Milhous said.

Dr. Milhous shared the honor with his wife Virginia and daughters, Elizabeth and Allyson, when he received the LePrince Medal at the Society’s annual meeting in November in Washington, DC. In addition to his family, faculty and students from the Department of Global Health Infectious Disease Research Program attended the meeting and supplemented his accomplishment with a record 28 presentations and abstracts.

"Dr. Milhous’ innovation, creativity, malaria program loyalty, accomplishments, and long-term commitment to development of drugs for malaria establish him as deserving of the LePrince Medal,” colleague Stephen Hoffman, MD, wrote in his letter nominating Dr. Milhous for the award. Dr. Hoffman was instrumental in sequencing the genome of the microbe responsible for malaria, Plasmodium falciparum.

Dr. Milhous is a member of a USF global health team gaining international prominence for understanding, tracking and controlling insect-borne infectious diseases, including malaria. The malaria research group includes Dennis Kyle, PhD, whose laboratory has taken a lead role in detecting emerging resistance to the major anti-malarial drug artemisinin, and John Adams, PhD, spearheading a Gates Foundation-sponsored international campaign for eradicating vivax malaria.

Under Dr. Kyle’s direction, the USF Global Health Infectious Disease Program has become the global epicenter for surveillance and detection of drug-resistant strains. Hundreds of specimens from patients undergoing artemisinin combination therapies are evaluated at USF using state-of-the art-technologies.

"For the first time in new drug deployment, the world will have real-time knowledge on the prevalence and severity of emerging resistance,” Dr. Milhous said. "This provides assurances that the right drugs will get to the right people at the right time, and the drugs will last longer.”

Dr. Milhous is the latest of 22 recipients of the prestigious LePrince Medal, awarded by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

One of the world’s foremost experts on new drugs for malaria prevention, Dr. Milhous is a member of the Expert Scientific Advisory Committee of Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV). He joined the USF College of Public Health in 2007 after a long tenure with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), the oldest school of public health and preventive medicine in the country and the largest biomedical research facility in the Department of Defense (DOD).

With colleagues at WRAIR, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and Harvard, he coordinated and performed pivotal experiments to elucidate the molecular and cellular basis of multiple drug resistance. He was awarded the Gorgas Medal in Preventive Medicine for establishing a malaria surveillance program now supported by the DOD’s Global Epidemiology Intelligence Service program. The work helped defined pillars for documenting drug resistance using molecular markers, susceptibility testing, pharmacokinetics and clinical outcomes, and ultimately evolved into an international database that underlies the Gates Foundation-supported Worldwide Antimalarial Resistance Network.

From 1992 to 1995, Dr. Milhous directed the WRAIR laboratory in Brazil, overseeing clinical trials for the antimalarial drugs Malarone and Sitamaquine. While working in the Amazon Basin, he contracted malaria and was treated by a colleague upon returning to the United States 10 days later. He was awarded the ASTMH’s Bailey K. Ashford Medal in 1993 for his basic science research contributions in malaria drug discovery and resistance.