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Home / Awards / Servitor Pacis Award / 2003 THE SERVITOR PACIS AWARD RECIPIENTS 2003 - Doctor Carlos Urbani Dr. Carlo Urbani was born on October 19, 1956 in Castelplanio (Ancona) Italy. He received his medical degree from the University of Ancona, and did post-graduate work in infectious diseases. Dr. Urbani was the World Health Organization's top infectious disease specialist in Vietnam, and was the first to identify the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS, in Hanoi. Urbani's decisive and determined intervention was crucial to Vietnam's efforts to contain the disease. He did not hesitate to put himself at risk by tending to the hospital bedside of those sick from SARS. Dr. Urbani contracted the disease himself while working with SARS patients and died on March 29, 2003, at the age of 46. Dr. Urbani's altruism did not only impact the scientific community but the family of nations as well. Had it not been for his early detection of the virus, many more individuals would have died because of SARS. In 1999, when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Doctors Without Borders, he said: "Health and dignity cannot be dissociated in human beings. It is our duty to stay close to victims and guarantee their rights." Regarding his life he wrote: "In general I believe that I have reached my personal goal. In life I have been able to recognize the signs that have directed me thus far, and to reach them I have also accepted trials and tribulations, but I do not now seek anything better from life. I thank God for His great generosity towards me, and I try to give back my 'talents' so that they can produce seeds and plants." In recognition of his selfless sacrifice in preventing a global epidemic, the Path to Peace Foundation is pleased to posthumously bestow upon Dr. Carlo Urbani the Servitor Pacis Award.
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