Bangladesh
Map of Bangladesh
Overview
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) have collaborated since ICDDR,B was founded as the Cholera Research Laboratory in 1963. Since 2000 CDC has seconded a senior epidemiologist to ICDDR,B to head a collaborative surveillance and research program focused on emerging infections. In 2008 the joint collaboration between CDC and ICDDR,B was extended to establish an International Emerging Infections Program.
ICDDR,B is an international organization, overseen by an international board of directors. It is the only international health research organization based in a developing country. Although its name suggests an exclusive focus on diarrheal disease, the Centre has active research programs on a broad range of infectious diseases including respiratory disease, HIV, parasitic diseases and meningo-encephalitis as well as major research activities in demography, family planning, nutrition, poverty, and gender equity.
ICDDR,B maintains a modern highly productive laboratory research infrastructure and population based surveillance at several sites across Bangladesh. The longest running surveillance site, in Matlab, Bangladesh, has over 200,000 persons under demographic surveillance for births, marriages, pregnancies, in migration, out migration and deaths, with associated health data that has been maintained since 1967.
ICDDR,B maintains a close relationship with the Government of Bangladesh. The Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for the Government of Bangladesh is a member of the ICDDR,B Board of Directors. The Government of Bangladesh is a major donor to ICDDR,B. In 2008 ICDDR,B signed a new formal memorandum understanding with the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), the institute within the government of Bangladesh’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare that is responsible for disease surveillance and outbreak response. ICDDR,B committed to continue supporting the Government of Bangladesh’s efforts to improve disease surveillance and to rapidly respond to emerging public health threats.
Selected Activities
Outbreak surveillance and response: ICDDR,B provides technical and logistical support to the Government of Bangladesh to support outbreak surveillance and response. ICDDR,B has two scientists working fulltime within the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research of the Government of Bangladesh to assist in surveillance and outbreak investigations. When requested, ICDDR,B provides technical, logistic, and diagnostic support to investigations.
Influenza surveillance: In collaboration with IEDCR, ICDDR,B maintains surveillance for clusters of severe respiratory infection and strains of circulating influenza virus at six private and six government hospitals across the country. Collaborative influenza surveillance between ICDDR,B and IEDCR has defined the seasonality of influenza in Bangladesh and identified the first human case of H5N1 influenza infection in the country.
Meningo encephalitis surveillance: ICDDR,B in collaboration with IEDCR maintains surveillance for Nipah virus and other causes of acute meningo encephalitis. Since 2002, ICDDR,B and IEDCR have investigated eight outbreaks of Nipah encephalitis. Seventy-two percent of patients identified died of their acute illness. Half of all cases developed the infection through person to person transmission.
Page last modified: November 14, 2008