Dr Senjuti Saha appointed as board member of WHO's Polio Transition Independent Monitoring Board
This is the first time a Bangladeshi has been appointed to this position
Bangladeshi Dr Senjuti Saha of the Child Health Research Foundation has been appointed to serve on the Polio Transition Independent Monitoring Board (TIMB) for advising the World Health Organisation (WHO) at the Director-General level.
This is the first time a Bangladeshi has been appointed to this position in TIMB which is created by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative to monitor and guide the process of polio transition planning, according to the website of Child Health Research Foundation.
Dr Saha's job will primarily focus on how countries around the world will sustain the public health infrastructure- particularly essential immunisation, wider communicable disease surveillance, emergency response - once polio money which has been used for years or decades to pay for non-polio activity is withdrawn.
WHO is implementing a plan for polio transition approved by the World Health Assembly in May 2018.
A total of three board members have been appointed this year along with Dr Saha. The other two members are Professor Sheila Leatherman from USA and Dr Lola Dare from Nigeria.