Top Bangladeshi immunologist Dr. Firdausi Qadri, who recently received Roman Magsaysay Award, said better sanitation and awareness were necessary to curb the recurrence of deadly cholera outbreaks.

Maternal and Child Health Division (MCHD) of icddr,b has developed a web-based online platform to provide virtual mental health counselling services to both health care providers and Covid-19 patients. Under this initiative, until now, 1,693 Covid-19 patients and 1,443 healthcare workers have received counselling services in the last four months. This counselling service is currently operational in 16 districts of the country. Through this web-based platform, subscribers can register and schedule appointments with the help of icddr,b field staff.

In Bangladesh, about four out of five people 60 years and older suffer from chronic diseases, including hypertension, diabetes, depression, and dementia, according to a study of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, known also as icddr, b.

The study – the first of its kind to combine genome sequencing and mobile phone data – has found a direct link between mass migration from Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh (an area of high infection), and the spread of coronavirus to the rest of the country after a stay-at-home order was announced during the nation’s first wave of infection in March 2020.

The study, conducted by the Stop TB Partnership and health research institute icddr,b, compared chest X-ray readings made by three certified radiologists in Dhaka with those done by five AI algorithms. The readings were then measured against the results of patients’ nucleic acid amplification tests, which were employed as the reference standard for TB diagnosis.

Firdausi Qadri, 70, was one of five recipients of the Ramon Magsaysay Award -- named after a Filipino president killed in a plane crash -- for her "life-long devotion to the scientific profession" and "untiring contributions to vaccine development".

Resistance to antibiotics is common and often deadly among children with pneumonia in Bangladesh, according to a new study coauthored by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) with colleagues at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (abbreviated as icddr,b). This study, which appears in the journal Open Forum Infectious Diseases, offers an early warning that a pandemic of potentially deadly antibiotic resistance is under way and could spread around the globe.

One of the world’s leading global health research institutes, the International Centre for Diarrhoel Disease Research, Bangladesh, known as icddr,b, based in Dhaka, has collaborated on the project by helping to line up 1,500 people to participate in the trial. The app was developed in Bangla, the native language of the region.

In recent weeks, the medical team at the UNICEF/icddr,b SARI ITC has been observing a decreasing number of patients seeking care in their dedicated isolation facility.

“There is big demand for the Chinese vaccines,” says Firdausi Qadri, an immunologist at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, in Dhaka.

Friendly gut bacteria have emerged as an invaluable ally in the war against malnutrition after a research study in Bangladesh showed that bacteria-targeting food supplements were more effective than standard nutritional supplements in improving the health of undernourished children.

icddr,b observed a dramatic change in the distribution of SARS-CoV-2 variants when the South African variant appeared. It became the most prevalent variant during the third week of March 2021 by replacing other variants. Most remarkably, the South African variant occupied 81% of the variants in the fourth week of March 2021. Our findings warrant continuous monitoring of genetic variations of SARS-CoV-2, which is crucial for vaccine effectiveness and patients management.

To save a starving child, aid workers have long used one obvious treatment: food. But a new study suggests feeding their gut bacteria may be as important—or even more important—than feeding their stomachs. In a head-to-head comparison against a leading treatment for malnutrition, a new supplement designed to promote helpful gut bacteria led to signs of improved growth and more weight gain, despite having 20% fewer calories. The study also highlights how important gut bacteria—the so-called microbiome—can be to human health.

We continue our “World Tour” of treatments for COVID-19, with this Debriefing interview with Professor Wasif Ali Khan, in Bangladesh.

The B.1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2, the UK variant, has been detected for the first time in a Bangladeshi resident. The research is published in Microbiology Resource Announcements, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

As vaccination programmes in the developing world lag behind richer nations' efforts, a drug called ivermectin, commonly used for treating skin conditions and parasites in livestock, has shown some promise.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of international COVID-19 literature, led by UNSW Sydney, has confirmed that while children under five years old were likely to recover from the infection, half of those infected were infants and almost half of the infected under-fives were asymptomatic.

A "Be the Hero: Be the Change" blog about inspirational people who have stepped up to help

Patients who took only invermectin for 5 days 77% more likely to have early viral clearance after 14 days, says new study

icddr,b's Senior Scientist Dr Firdausi Qadri gave an exclusive interview to BBC World Service's The Real Story on COVID-19 vaccines.