Infectious Diseases and Vaccine Sciences: Strategic Directions

Abstract

Despite substantial progress, infectious diseases remain important causes of ill-health and premature deaths in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has experienced a >90% reduction in the incidence of deaths due to childhood diarrhoea over the last 25 years. Further reductions can be achieved through the introduction of effective vaccines against rotavirus and improvements in home hygiene, quality of drinking-water, and clinical case management, including appropriate use of oral rehydration solution and zinc. Pneumonia is now the leading cause of childhood deaths in Bangladesh, and the pneumonia-specific child mortality is largely unchanged over the last 25 years. Reductions in mortality due to pneumonia can be achieved through the introduction of protein conjugate vaccines against Haemophilus influenza type b and Streptococcus pneumoniae, improvements in case management, including efforts to prevent delays in providing appropriate treatment, and the wider use of zinc. Tuberculosis is responsible for an estimated 70,000 deaths each year in Bangladesh. Although services for directly-observed therapy have expanded markedly, improved case finding and involvement of private practitioners will be important to reduce the burden of disease.

Consequence of Indoor Air Pollution in Rural Area of Nepal: A Simplified Measurement Approach

“…Use of traditional mud stove and unrefined biomass is the major risk factors for health problems associated with IAP (Table 5 ). Since, respiratory illnesses are the major causes of morbidity and mortality globally and in Nepal also ( 15 , 22 ).…”

Co-morbidity: exploring the clinical overlap between pneumonia and diarrhoea in a hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh

“…23 This is largely because of mass media campaigns to educate people about diarrhoea and the use of ORS, now widely used in Bangladesh. The recent introduction of zinc for routine management of diarrhoea and the associated coverage by the mass media have also contributed significantly to better knowledge of diarrhoea.…”

Evaluating the effects between metal mixtures and serum vaccine antibody concentrations in children: a prospective birth cohort study

“…In the past two decades Bangladesh has made significant advances in reducing the burden of childhood infectious disease and mortality, which has largely been attributed to increased vaccination coverage, improved surveillance, expanded capacity building programs, and micronutrient supplementation initiatives [39,40]. Since the vaccination coverage is very high among this population, we aimed to examine the single and combined exposure to arsenic, manganese, and lead on vaccine antibody concentrations which provide a feasible and clinically relevant biomarker of humoral immunity and potential developmental immunotoxicity [41,42].…”