Mansour Ali Haseeb

Haseeb suddenly passed away on 29 September 1973, aged 63, shortly after receiving Shousha Prize from the World Health Organization . His obituary ceremony reflected the feelings of the medical community and included a eulogy by Professor Abdullah El Tayib, then the President of University of Khartoum.

Haseeb was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists in 1965 and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1969. He received the Shousha Medal and Prize from the World Health Organization on the 24 January 1973, in recognition for his contribution to the field of public health and medical education.

Haseeb dedicated his book A Monograph on Biomedical Research in Sudan (1970) to the National Council of Research and to benefit young researchers. He is considered as The Godfather Of Sudan's Laboratory Medicine. In May 1973, Harry Hoogstraal stated that “Professor Mansour Haseeb has been more intimately associated than any other living person with adding to Sudanese biomedical knowledge and sharing vast experience with younger generations of physicians and scientists.”

Haseeb was appointed Mayor of Omdurman. He was invited by Willy Brandt (then Mayor of West Berlin) to visit West Berlin in 1963, and represented Omdurman in welcoming Queen Elizabeth II when she visited in February 1965.

Haseeb was awarded the Order of the Star of Ethiopia by HIM the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie I, in 1960. In 1962, he received the Order of Merit (Arabic: وسام الاستحقاق) from the United Arab Republic.

In 1954, Haseeb accompanied Dr Telford H. Work and Dr Richard Moreland Taylor in an expedition to research yellow fever on Baggara tribesmen, Nuba villages, and the Dinka people. The expedition was documented in a film, Reconnaissance for Yellow Fever in the Nuba Mountains, Southern Sudan. Hasseb contributed to 40 scentific papers, published in Nature, the Lancet, the British Medical Journal, and Journal of Hygiene. Hasseb was Editor-in-Chief of the Sudan Medical Journal from 1948 to 1958.

Haseeb did his medical training at Khartoum, Dongola, Haifa, Singa and Geneina Hospitals, before being appointed Director of the Stack Medical Research Laboratories (1952–1962). He left Stack, in 1963, succeeded by Mohamed Hamad Satti, to become a professor of Microbiology and Parasitology, and the first Sudanese Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Khartoum until 1969. He was an examiner of the Royal Society of Health in Khartoum, and, in 1973, he was appointed Chairman of the Sudan Medical Research Council.

Haseeb was married to Fatma El Bereir in 1944, and they had five children. He enjoyed playing tennis, and translating from English to Arabic, e.g., Al Hakeem Arabic: الحكيم.

He attended Atbara School (or between Berber, Atbara and Port Sudan) before moving to Khartoum to attended Gordon Memorial College and pursue medical education at Kitchener School of Medicine (now the Faculty of Medicine, University of Khartoum) and Khartoum Civil Hospital, and graduated with the DKSM in 1937 (or 1934). He became interested in bacteriology and parasitology and then went to United Kingdom and obtained a Diploma of Bacterilogy in 1943 (or 1946).

Mansour Ali Haseeb FRCP FRCPh (Arabic: منصور علي حسيب, 1 January 1910–29 September 1973) was a Sudanese professor of microbiology and parasitology and the first Sudanese dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Khartoum. He championed medical research in Sudan to the extent that he is remembered as The Godfather Of Sudan's Laboratory Medicine.

Mansour Ali Haseeb was born on 1 January 1910 in Al Gitaina, Sudan, to Sheikh Ali Haseeb, the Judge of Al Gitana, and Fatma Mohamed. His family is originally from Berber, Sudan and known for their scholar.