Peter Powder Obituary, Peter Powder Has Passed Away
- by James Lucas
Peter Powder Obituary, Death Cause – My father, Peter Pharoah, was a professor of public health who passed away at the age of 87 due to dementia. His work helped eradicate iodine shortage in Papua New Guinea and furthered awareness of the causes of cerebral palsy and perinatal death. He was diagnosed with dementia in his later years. Peter was the son of Phyllis (née Gahan), a teacher, and Oswald Pharoah, also a teacher. Although he was born in Ranchi, India, he received his education at Lovedale and Sanawar respectively. Peter had just turned seven years old when his father passed away, and the following year, in 1948, he moved to Britain with his mother and brother. He went to Palmer’s school in Grays, Essex, and St. Mary’s hospital medical school in London.
It was at St. Mary’s hospital that he met his future wife, Margaret McMinn, who was also studying to become a physician. He also ran on a team with Sir Roger Bannister during his time at St. Mary’s hospital. Beginning in 1958, Peter worked as a junior doctor at a number of London hospitals, and he spent his whole professional life upholding the principles that founded the National Health Service. In 1960, he tied the knot, and the following year, in 1963, he relocated to Papua New Guinea with his small family to take a position as a medical officer in Rabaul. He went on to have similar positions as a district medical officer in Mount Hagen, Wewak, and Goroka after that.
Peter discovered that the entrance of administrators in the late 1950s in a remote highland region known as the Jimi valley coincided with the beginning of an outbreak of endemic cretinism, which is a condition characterized by significant abnormalities in the neural system. Villagers were compensated in salt by the administrators, and as a result, they no longer traveled to isolated pools in order to produce naturally iodized salt. Peter speculated that the cretinism could have been caused by a lack of iodine as a consequence of the situation.
He gave women of childbearing age injections of iodized oil as part of a clinical trial, which was somewhat unusual at the time and particularly challenging in such challenging terrain. The findings made it abundantly evident that a lack of iodine during pregnancy was the root cause of endemic cretinism. The sickness was eradicated as a result of subsequent legislation that mandated the importation of iodized salt exclusively. Over the next two decades, Peter conducted research on the children who were born during the trial. Accompanied by a rotating cast of students and medical professionals, Peter went on numerous patrols through a territory that was rarely visited by outsiders.
Peter Powder Obituary, Death Cause – My father, Peter Pharoah, was a professor of public health who passed away at the age of 87 due to dementia. His work helped eradicate iodine shortage in Papua New Guinea and furthered awareness of the causes of cerebral palsy and perinatal death. He was diagnosed with dementia in his…