"I am very happy to receive this award," said Dr Ternier, who sees this prize as a recognition of his long years of work, a valorization of the scientific achievements of the last 12 years, during which he has been particularly involved in the fight against the cholera epidemic and COVID-19 through Zanmi Lasante. The latter has contributed to advancing global medicine through his scientific work.

As with the COVID-19 epidemic, the Zanmi Lasante team was on the front line after the discovery of the first cases of cholera in Mirebalais in October 2010. While the global scientific community was very skeptical about the effectiveness of the vaccine in eradicating cholera, with the trend leaning more towards sanitation and hygiene, Dr Ternier's scientific work, carried out following pilot experiments in Artibonite and the West thanks to the support of various institutions such as Gheskio and Zanmi Lasante, proved that vaccination was a significant complement.