Vidarbha native makes breakthrough discovery in path to eliminating autoimmune disease

Nagpur: For over 40 years, Dr Abdul Razzaque has been practicing in US and is credited with a major breakthrough in the year 2001 that is the best known answer till date to potentially eradicating autoimmune disease.
But, there is still lot of love and pride in him for his native Vidarbha. “I grew up in a small place called Wani (Yavatmal) but right from the start I knew that I will become a doctor,” said Dr Ahmed.

And there was no shortage of inspiration as 38 of his first cousins had become doctors. “Yes 38 of them, I have a very big family” he laughed realizing how the huge number sounded to others. “My grandfather had 17 children and we are over 50 cousins. I was the last (39th) to become a medical practitioner,” said Dr Ahmed.

He completed his MBBS from AIIMS (Delhi) and shifted to the US in the mid-70s. He studied further and added many more academic titles to his portfolio. Dr Ahmed is known world over for his path breaking research on ‘reversing autoimmunity of rituximab and intravaneous immunoglobulin’.

An autoimmune disease leads to even good cells being destroyed and Dr Ahmed claims his discovery has changed that completely. “I first published the research in 2001, though I was practicing that for a few years before that. The treatment is to be taken for a period of one to two years and effects can last for at least 20 years. I believe that even after that period, the patient will continue to be safe from autoimmune disease problems,” said Dr. Ahmed.