Clarification about Dr John D Clemens' statement in the Economist report

In an article entitled “Infections are rising fast in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan” in its June 6th 2020 edition of The Economist, Dr. John D Clemens, Executive Director, icddr,b was quoted as, “John Clemens of ICDDR,B (formerly the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh), estimates that Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, may already have as many as 750,000 cases, even though the official national tally is less than 60,000.”

Unfortunately, this statement was taken out of context. When asked how high the COVID count might be, Professor Clemens indicated that icddr,b’s staff have been under intensive surveillance for COVID since the beginning of the epidemic. All employees with cough, fever, or shortness to breath are instructed to contact the Staff Clinic on a 24/7 hotline, and those with COVID symptoms are instructed to be tested for COVID by the icddr,b laboratories. And for those who have COVID, icddr,b provides treatment, and in collaboration with IEDCR, ensures isolation and does contact tracing.

To date, among the approximately 2,000 icddr,b employees who work at the icddr,b Mohakhali campus, 4-5% have been infected by COVID with no apparent relation to transmission on the icddr,b campus. Although this 4- 5% rate of COVID disease among icddr,b employees may not be representative of all community transmission in Dhaka, and generalization to the entire city may not be justifiable, if the figures are extrapolated to the entire population of Dhaka, one could derive at a total cumulative case count of at least 750,000.

 

#

Published on July 15, 2020