Balbir Ball Greene Nehaul

Short abstract

An expert at setting up pathology laboratories in developing countries

Balbir Nehaul rose from humble beginnings to become Guyana's government pathologist and microbiologist, the first Guyanese person to be appointed to the post. His work included research into rabies transmitted by bats, trials of the new polio vaccines with American colleagues, and the introduction of childhood immunisation programmes in Guyana in the 1940s and 1950s.

Figure 1.

He travelled widely throughout the West Indies and the Americas and became recognised as an expert at setting up pathology laboratories in developing countries and training their staff. Colleagues visited Guyana and he visited their laboratories abroad. He and these colleagues shared ideas enthusiastically, enriching each other's practice and research.

From 1960 to 1964 Dr Nehaul was deputy director of medical services in Guyana. From 1964 to 1970 he worked for the World Health Organization as a consultant, developing microbiology services and training staff in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Nepal.

Balbir Nehaul (known to his friends as “BG”) was educated in Guyana and returned there after qualifying as a doctor in London. He worked in general practice, on the wards of the public hospital, and as a district medical officer, before postgraduate training in pathology—including microbiology and forensic medicine—in Leeds and Edinburgh.

He returned to Guyana in 1945 to become government pathologist and microbiologist at the Central Medical Laboratory and for many years was the only medical specialist in this area in Guyana. He set about developing and extending the services provided by the laboratory to the public hospital. He also carried a heavy on-call workload in the medico-legal field, travelling and working throughout Guyana to assist the police in their investigations.

Dr Nehaul was keen to use his skills and the services of the laboratory to improve the health of the people of Guyana. To gain additional expertise he returned to England to study at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

He was a founding fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists and received an OBE in 1964 for his medical and charitable work in Guyana.

He settled in England in 1970 and for the next 10 years worked and taught in the department of microbiology at the University of Leeds.

He leaves a wife, Aileen; four children; and seven grandchildren.

Balbir Ball Greene Nehaul, former government pathologist and microbiologist Guyana (b Guyana 1912; q University College London 1938; OBE, FRCPath), d 16 October 2003.