Bangladesh: 50 Years of Advances in Health and Challenges Ahead

Abstract

Bangladesh is a "positive deviant" as a result of its progress from being the second poorest country in the world to implementing world-class programs in family planning, immunizations, promotion of oral rehydration therapy for diarrhea, detection and treatment completion for TB, and much more. nThe recently published book, 50 Years of Bangladesh: Advances in Health, highlights these and many other achievements and provides an overview of the daunting challenges that must be overcome in the next 50 years if Bangladesh is to achieve universal health coverage and "Health for All."The most important of these challenges include major increases in government expenditures for health, building of a strong primary health care system that relies on a professionalized cadre of community health workers that reach every home on a regular basis, catastrophic health insurance for all citizens, innovations in health care delivery within the long-standing culture of reliance on research and evidence, and strong independent civil society engagement by groups such as Bangladesh Health Watch.