A study with icddr,b and collaborators from University of North Carolina and Johns Hopkins University, USA have examined the influences of heatwaves, rainfall and tree cover on cholera - the deadly diarrhoeal disease known for its heavy human death toll worldwide. Heatwave conditions are increasingly warming daytime temperatures and bring fewer cold days, which are widely considered to be triggered by climate change.

Around 40% of E. coli bacteria in household soil, with 10% having the potential to cause diarrhoeal diseases, have shown resistance to at least one antibiotic, found an icddr,b study in rural Bangladesh with Swiss collaborators.

icddr,b executive director Prof John Clemens MD has received this year’s Prince Mahidol Award jointly with Swedish immunologist and former icddr,b Scientific Advisory Group chair Prof Jan Holmgren for their contribution in developing world’s only safe, effective and affordable and internationally licensed oral cholera vaccine (OCV) which has been used for millions of people at risk of or affected by the spread of cholera worldwide.

In some rural regions of Bangladesh, one in every three people with high blood pressure, known as hypertension, have a greater chance of developing chronic kidney disease (CKD), suggests the COBRA-BPS (Control of Blood Pressure and Risk Attenuation – Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) multi-country study with icddr,b.

The very thought of normal deliveries seems to scare many women nowadays with c-sections becoming more common, often due to a myth that most normal deliveries cause complications. An icddr,b intervention has focused on the second stage of normal delivery and combined pre- and post-delivery measures in order to learn whether this effort could lessen birth complications.

New findings with icddr,b published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine found that vitamin D supplement for mothers during pregnancy had no impact on child growth. Since compromised child growth and vitamin D deficiency both are commonly found in Bangladesh, the new research investigated whether these two were interrelated.

Published in Nature Disease Primer, a recent review co-authored by icddr,b researchers suggests that rising sea temperature caused by climate change may be favouring the incidence of different vibrio-related diseases, including diarrhoeal diseases, invasive illness caused by some virulent Vibrio species as well as wound infections and gastroenteritis caused by others types of Vibrio species.

The hepatitis B vaccine programme in Bangladesh was found highly effective in preventing chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection among children, suggests a new icddr,b study in collaboration with the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), Bangladesh, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta (CDC) the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Stanford University, US.

A new icddr,b study with Stanford University has identified multiple possible sources of lead contamination in food and non-food sources, suggesting that this heavy metal can accumulate inside bones and be released years later in blood although the source of contamination may be already gone.

Findings from an icddr,b study survey conducted in 12 selected wards in Dhaka city suggests that refrigerator trays were mostly responsible for Aedes production during wet seasons, alongside plastic drums, vehicle parts and discarded construction materials.

Three in every four mothers in Bangladesh’s hard-to-reach areas may not be well prepared for delivering their babies, indicates an icddr,b study. Substandard health care for mothers may be a problem. Two of the most common causes of deaths due to childbirths, i.e. haemorrhage and eclampsia must also be addressed.

People with hypertension, particularly in disadvantaged communities in places like rural Bangladesh are more likely to have uncontrolled blood pressure (BP), indicates recent findings from the trial called COBRA-BPS (Control of Blood Pressure and Risk Attenuation – Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka).

Over 75 percent of commercially available pasteurised milk in Bangladesh may be unsafe for direct consumption due to bacterial contamination, indicates an icddr,b study.

Recently the great influx of Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (FDMNs) in Bangladesh has increased population movements around the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region in south-western Bangladesh. The CHT is neighbouring to the Greater Mekong region - currently flagged for the spread of resistance to the widely used antimalarial drug ‘artemisinin.’

Globally, rotavirus results in the deaths of approximately 215,000 children every year, mainly in low income countries. Current evidence suggests that susceptibility to this infection is connected to hereditary differences in histo-blood group antigen phenotypes, as determined by secretor status and the Lewis antigen system.

In countries like Bangladesh, community-based health insurances (CBHI) set up with voluntary contributions can help cover unforeseen healthcare cost for low-income informal workers like rickshaw pullers, shopkeepers and day labourers. However, informal workers having high health risk may be more likely to subscribe to these CBHIs.

A new study conducted by icddr,b in collaboration with National TB Control Program (NTP) has found that patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) also having diabetes may be more likely to experience early hearing loss.

Improved drinking water, sanitation and handwashing (WASH) with nutrition intervention successfully cut childhood diarrhoea in rural Bangladesh, found a new study by icddr,b with US collaborators. Researchers think that partial improvements in WASH are insufficient to optimally affect childhood stunting - a condition when children become too short for their age.

icddr,b is playing a key role to prevent disease outbreak among the Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (FDMNs) seeking refuge in Bangladesh. The plight of the FDMNs was mostly hidden from the world until August 2017 when they fled from Myanmar due to a violent military crackdown.

An icddr,b study on over 2500 childbirths under its Matlab Health and Demographic Surveillance (HDSS) area found that around 35% of these deliveries were caesarean section (C-section) and only 1.4% of these C-sections were conducted for absolute maternal indications (AMI).