Bangladesh now role model in dealing with Covid: Health minister

Health Minister Zahid Malek said Bangladesh is ranked 8th in Bloomberg's assessment of fighting Covid-19 and is now recognised as a role model in the world.

"While the economies of many countries around the world are reeling from Covid fallout, Bangladesh has been able to turn around with a six-plus GDP growth. This did not just happen. The health sector had to work round the clock to get here," said the minister, addressing a discussion meeting on World Kidney Day-2022.

The Health Minister said Bangladesh set its record by administering 1.2 crore doses in one day.

So far 22 crore doses have been administered in the country, of which 12 crore were given as the first dose, 8 crore in a second dose round, and 50 lakh as boosters, he told people attending the discussion.

He said the government has spent about Tk40,000 crore on vaccine procurement and immunisation work.

The health minister told the meeting that more people would be given booster shots, adding that a booster campaign will be launched in the same way that about one crore people were vaccinated in one day.

This will make the country more secure, he added.

Regarding kidney disease, the health minister said, "At a time when we are concerned that 20 people are dying every day due to Covid, 70 to 80 people are dying from kidney disease and more than 2-3 hundred people are dying from cancer every day, but we are not aware of this reality. We need to be more aware of these diseases."

Referring to the number of kidney patients, the health minister said there are about two crore people suffering from kidney disease in the country now and on an average, 20-30 thousand people are contracting kidney disease every day. 

The minister also noted that the government has undertaken the job of setting up 10 bed dialysis facilities and 10 ICU beds, separately in each district of the country. 

Work has also been started to build eight modern cancer and kidney medical hospitals in eight divisions, he added.

The National Institute of Kidney Diseases & Urology organised the meeting in the capital this afternoon.

The meeting was chaired by Director Mizanur Rahman of the National Institute of Kidney Diseases and Urology, and was addressed by Saiful Islam Badal, Secretary, Department of Health Education; Director General, Prof. ABM Khurshid Alam,  Department of Health and other speakers, including Nitai Chandra Biswas also attended.