Chong Kun Dang Hochon Foundation holds 20th Kochon Prize ceremony in Bali

The Chong Kun Dang Hochon Foundation held an international awards ceremony honoring organizations dedicated to fighting tuberculosis worldwide.

The foundation announced Monday that it hosted the 20th Kochon Prize ceremony Thursday in Bali, Indonesia, with about 300 health officials from around the world in attendance. The event also included the 19th Kochon Prize ceremony, which had been postponed earlier this year.

The 20th Kochon Prize, themed "improving early TB diagnosis and access to treatment and outcomes through integration with other health services," was awarded jointly to three organizations: the Marshall Islands TB Control Program, India's REACH (Resource Group for Education and Advocacy for Community Health) and Kenya's Center for Health Solutions.

The Marshall Islands TB Control Program was recognized for building a community-integrated health system covering TB, diabetes and leprosy screening, through which it screened about 20,000 residents of the capital Majuro and achieved a treatment success rate of 95.9 percent. India's REACH partnered with more than 180 private medical institutions to screen about 1.5 million people, identifying more than 3,000 patients through early detection. Kenya's Center for Health Solutions was credited with providing integrated screening to about 165,000 residents in underserved areas using AI-based chest X-rays and mobile diagnostic equipment.

The 19th Kochon Prize, held concurrently and themed "contributing to securing and expanding domestic resources for TB response," went jointly to Pakistan's DOPASI Foundation and Nigeria's Stop TB Partnership country team. The DOPASI Foundation led the establishment of a parliamentary TB caucus, securing more than 8.1 billion Pakistani rupees in response funding, while the Nigerian team mobilized private-sector participation to raise about 2.4 billion naira in donations and expand diagnostic equipment worth $1.2 million.

"The Kochon Prize, now in its 20th year, has shone a light on the frontline efforts of those dedicated to eliminating TB worldwide and has helped build international attention and solidarity," foundation Chairman Jung Jae-jung said. "We will continue our support to realize a world free of tuberculosis."

The Kochon Prize was established to honor the legacy of the late Hochon Lee Jong-keun, who founded Chong Kun Dang in 1941 and devoted his life to combating TB in Korea by localizing anti-tuberculosis medicines that had previously relied on imports. Chong Kun Dang Chairman Lee Jang-han and the late Lee Jong-wook, director-general of the World Health Organization, worked together over two years before officially establishing the prize at the Stop TB Partnership board meeting in 2005.

Each year, recipients are selected through a global expert review process and awarded a total of $100,000, including prize money. To date, the prize — considered the world's most prestigious award in TB eradication — has supported 13 individual researchers and 17 organizations with a combined 3.4 billion won ($2.53 million) in research grants.