Bangladesh

Dedicated to saving lives, icddr,b is a leading international health research organization located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Through translation of research into treatment, training and policy advocacy, this organization addresses some of the most critical health concerns facing the world today. Research programs include nutrition, child health, reproductive health, chronic diseases, infectious diseases, vaccine sciences, health systems, HIV/AIDS and climate change. Alongside its extensive research agenda, icddr,b provides humanitarian services to some of Bangladesh’s most vulnerable people-160,000 of whom visit its clinical facilities every year. Drawing on over 40 years of experience, icddr,b’s hospitals and clinics have also become an invaluable training ground, not only for the routine treatment of diarrheal diseases, such as cholera, but also for its epidemic response teams, who use their expertise in the field, both in Bangladesh and abroad.

The urban Dhaka and rural Matlab Hospitals at icddr,b provide the clinical services to complement the development of lifesaving solutions. Dhaka Hospital was set up in 1962 and quickly became a refuge for the neediest in Bangladesh, offering treatment that would otherwise be beyond their means. The hospital currently treats around 140,000 patients in a year and maintains extremely low mortality rates and a very low average treatment cost per patient- around 40,000 of them would have died if not efficiently treated. In addition to treating those immediately in need of care, the hospital provides the research opportunities and information scientists need to battle enteric diseases on a larger scale. The most common diseases among the admitted patients are pneumonia, severe pneumonia, typhoid fever, persistent diarrhea, meningitis, hyperthermia, febrile convulsions, severe protein energy malnutrition, electrolyte imbalance, sepsis and hypoglycemia. About 5-6% of the patients admitted to the General Ward become critical during their treatment and those are referred to Special Care Unit for more intensive treatment and observation. The Special Care Unit provides specialized personnel and resources for the care of the critically ill infants, children and adults. The Special Care Unit combines the Special Care Ward and the recently established Isolation Room with negative-pressure system. On average, 1,600 patients are provided care in the Special Care Unit every year, and 81% of them are children under the age of 5 years.

The Matlab Hospital houses the Health and Demographic Surveillence System, which is one of the most comprehensive longitudinal data resources in a low/middle-income country, producing continuous demographic and health data information on a population of over 200,000 people since 1945. Matlab is the major rural field site, and a major public health resource for the world. The surveillance system's key role is to monitor population exposure accurately over time to derive health and demographic rates and ratios and assess impacts of health and social interventions.