The World Medical Association has paid homage to ophthalmologist and President Emeritus Censu Tabone, who was instrumental in ridding Gozo of trachoma, by including him in a book called Caring Physicians of the World.

"These remarkable stories will help restore pride, passion, enthusiasm and optimism among our colleagues," World Medical Association president Yank Coble said, referring to the book on the association's website.

The book is part of the initiatives taken by the WMA presidency for 2004 and this year, whose central theme is also Caring Physicians of the World. It aims to highlight the work of 65 physicians from many of the medical associations that make up the WMA. The physicians were chosen by their peers for their personal and professional attributes.

Dr Tabone was the founder of the Medical Officers Union, now the Medical Association of Malta.

"Dr Censu Tabone modestly describes himself as 'a doctor who did something else'. At the age of 92, he has the distinction of being recognised as one of Malta's elder statesmen, both in the world of medicine and in the world of politics, where he served as his country's president for five years," the book says.

Dr Tabone's vocation as a doctor was described as something that was prepared for him, while he chose politics himself. Dr Tabone's father was chief surgeon in Gozo and two of his elder brothers also chose the medical profession.

It was quite a surprise, and a pleasant one, when he received a copy of the hard-bound full colour book in the post.

"About a year-and-a-half ago a photographer came and followed me around for a day but I did not know that this book was being written," he said, adding that it was good that a Maltese doctor has been mentioned in such a publication.

The write-up about Dr Tabone recalls his anti-trachoma campaign in Gozo in the late 1940s, which eventually led to the disease being eradicated from the island.

Speaking to The Times, Dr Tabone said the government entrusted him with the campaign soon after he returned to Gozo after training in ophthalmology in the UK. Trachoma is a contagious eye infection that if left untreated may lead to chronic scarring and blindness. Dr Tabone said many people in Gozo were suffering from it at the time, so much so that the island had a hospital solely for trachoma sufferers.

The disease was so infectious that before people emigrated to Australia, Canada or the United States they had to present proof that they did not suffer from the disease.

Dr Tabone said he started treating schoolchildren in Gozo with antibiotics. "I asked teachers for their cooperation to manage this problem, which could lead to blindness. This way they could also protect themselves from getting the infection. The teachers administered either drops or ointment to the children three times a day, and the results were very good," he said, adding that it was later discovered that trachoma was mostly spread by children.

In the middle of last century antibiotics were not as widely used as they are today but Dr Tabone managed to convince a supplier to send them to him for free so that he could carry out the campaign.

Despite the good results achieved, the response from other ophthalmologists was far from positive when he presented the preliminary results at the International Congress of Ophthalmologists in 1950. "But I was courageous enough to write my findings in the British Journal of Ophthalmology and some of my colleagues started using this method," he said.

The World Health Organisation then started receiving favourable reports about the method and appointed him as a consultant on trachoma. Dr Tabone's method then started being used all over the world, with the result that the disease was eradicated from many countries. Later on he was part of the WHO's Expert Committee on Trachoma, which analysed his findings and issued a report in May 1956.

"Eventually, using antibiotics became an accepted way to treat trachoma," he said modestly. In fact, his method is still considered the basic treatment for the disease.

Despite having retired quite a few years ago, Dr Tabone still considers himself a doctor, but one who did something else too, since he was also a politician and served as President. He still receives visits from patients, mostly to ask for his opinion.

"I take out my doctor's bag and see them," he said with a smile, admitting that he likes becoming a doctor once again.

He has kept abreast with developments in the medical field, especially in ophthalmology. "I spend around three hours a day on the internet and print out anything that interests me so that I can keep a copy."