Bangladesh shows that rapid progress is possible—and that much more remains to be done. The country has seen a huge fall in stunting, from 63% in 1990 to 24% in 2022. Tahmeed Ahmed, the head of icddr,b, credits economic growth, which has been healthy, and a spirit of collaboration between the state and ngos.

Health experts are calling for tighter biosecurity measures in global poultry production, from farms to markets, to monitor bird flu (avian influenza) following its spread among dairy cows in the United States. Since 2003, 888 cases of human infection with the avian influenza virus, also known as H5N1, have been reported from 23 countries, of which 463 were fatal, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia are among the worst affected.

Cholera is a severe and life-threatening condition that is greatly exacerbated by rapid urbanisation – leaving densely populated countries like Bangladesh at risk. Building on a rich history of pioneering vaccines, discover what it takes to develop a cholera control plan.

"It affects every organ of the body,” said Rubhana Raqib, a senior scientist at the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research in Bangladesh (ICDDR,B). Some experts have suggested the scale of the poisoning in Bangladesh is far beyond that of other better-known human-caused catastrophes, such as the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Over the past few months, the surge in cases has pushed Bangladesh’s health system to the limit, with hospital corridors overflowing with patients as wards run out of beds.

The disease, which is caused by a parasite spread by the bite of sandlies, had swelled his organs, recalls Dr. Dinesh Mondal, of the Dhaka-based research institute icddr,b. "His spleen was so big. His liver was not functioning. He was just left to die."

This year, six countries have managed to eliminate the threat of at least one of the diseases on the WHO's list of "neglected tropical diseases." Dr. Dinesh Mondal is a Bangladeshi research scientist. He recalls the scenes in the mid-2000s, when he first started working with the government to combat this disease.

People in South Asia have the highest levels of lead in their blood, according to a new study published in the Lancet Planetary Health. Pinpointing the main cause had long seemed daunting, because lead is everywhere in the region. Traces of the metal can be found in cooking utensils, cosmetics and other everyday products. But in 2019 a team of researchers from Stanford University and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr, b ), a health-research institute, began focusing on turmeric adulteration.

Single-dose vaccine demonstrates safety, immune responsiveness in children, adults, effective against all 4 dengue serotypes, shows study

A dengue vaccine has been successfully tested for the first time in Bangladesh, raising hopes for the south Asian country to overcome the epidemic, scientists revealed in a new study, according to a statement on Thursday.

The Nipah virus (NiV), an emerging zoonotic pathogen transmitted by bats, has been a cause for great concern ever since the mysterious and deadly illness first emerged in Malaysia in the late 1990s. But nowhere has its presence been more acutely felt than in Bangladesh. Since 2001, NiV has been endemic in the country, and with no vaccines available to defend against it, a staggering 71% of the identified cases have resulted in death. These aren’t just numbers; they represent people, families, and communities that have been deeply affected.

The soft footfalls of thousands of moccasins along unpaved rural roads across Bangladesh could be considered the soundtrack to this country's astonishing success in its battle against malaria.

"Nipah is terrifying, unusually terrifying," says Dr. Stephen Luby, currently a professor of medicine at Stanford University, who was in charge of the outbreak investigation for eight years at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b).

Dr Mohammad Shafiul Alam, a scientist in the infectious diseases unit at a health research centre in Dhaka called icddr,b, added that “everyone knows someone who has caught dengue”. Official figures, he said, do not give a true indication of the size of the outbreak, as they only include people who have gone to hospital.

In 1978, The Lancet didn't hold back, declaring ORS as 'potentially the most important medical advance of this century.' Yet, with a tinge of bitter irony, I pen down these words knowing that half a million children under the age of five still lose their lives to diarrhoeal diseases annually. Even more disheartening is the fact that a about half of children suffering from diarrhoea aren't receiving the potentially life-saving ORS. These aren't cold, hard statistics; they're heart-wrenching realities. They're the lives of children we have the power to save.

HKG Epitherapeutics Ltd., the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, and a team of eminent Bangladeshi clinicians and scientists have announced the development of a transformative high-throughput assay for early detection of Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC).

"Our research shows that when air pollution increases, more children are born with low weight or prematurely," says Mahin Al Nahian, who researches climate change and health.

Published 27 March in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, the study notes that many children, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, suffer from multiple bouts of diarrhoea during the first year of life, despite improvements in toilet facilities, clean water access, immunisation services and exclusive breastfeeding.

A new study published in The Journal of Climate Change and Health found that mothers exposed to high levels of air pollution during pregnancy had a higher rate of low birth weight in 3,206 babies born in Dhaka between 2014 and 2017.

Post-coronavirus has more physical effects on women than men, particularly creating respiratory and cardiovascular complications in the following weeks, according to a recent study conducted by a Bangladeshi research organization. The study, titled "Features and risk factors of post-COVID-19 syndrome: Findings from a longitudinal study in Bangladesh," is the first of its kind in Asia, and found that COVID-19 long-term effects differ between men and women.