MEDIA ADVISORY: Henrietta Lacks: Recognizing Her Legacy Across the World - 13 October 2021, 17.15 CEST

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Monday, October 11, 2021

MEDIA ADVISORY

Henrietta Lacks: Recognizing Her Legacy Across the World- A special award ceremony at WHO

When: Wednesday, 13 October 2021, 17.15 CEST

Context: Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will honour the late Henrietta Lacks with a WHO Director-General’s award at a special ceremony at the WHO office in Geneva, recognizing her world-changing contribution to medical science. Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer, 70 years ago, on 4th October, 1951.

Speakers

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General

Dr Princess Nothemba (Nono) Simelela, Special Adviser on Strategic Programmatic Initiatives at WHO

Lawrence Lacks, Henrietta Lacks’s surviving son

Join live: bit.ly/3BraTBv
About Henrietta Lacks

As a young mother, Henrietta Lacks and her husband were raising five children near Baltimore when she fell ill. She went to Johns Hopkins after experiencing extensive vaginal bleeding and was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Despite treatment, it cut her life short on October 4, 1951. She was only 31 years old.

During treatment, researchers took samples of her tumour. That “HeLa” cell line became a scientific breakthrough: the first immortal line of human cells to divide indefinitely in a laboratory. The cells were mass produced, without recognition to her family. Over 50,000,000 metric tonnes of HeLa cells have been distributed around the world, the subjects of over 75,000 studies.

In addition to the human papillomavirus vaccine, which protects against various cancers including cervical cancer, HeLa cells have allowed for development of the polio vaccine; drugs for HIV/AIDS, haemophilia, leukemia, and Parkinson’s disease; breakthroughs in reproductive health, including in vitro fertilization; research on chromosomal conditions, cancer, gene mapping, and precision medicine; and used in studies responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the Lacks family carries forth their grandmother’s remarkable contributions to the world, join us in honouring Henrietta Lacks’ legacy, reckoning with past scientific injustices, and calling for equity in health and science.

Media contacts:
Laura Keenan, keenanl@who.int
mediainquiries@who.int

Interviews are available on request

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