The project provides institutional support to the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh (ICDDR, B – a non-profit, international research, service and training institute, with a strong international reputation). The project contributes towards health research to combat a variety of different diseases, training, and the provision of health and population services appropriate to the needs of the poor, in particular women and children. It aims to increase their access to those services with the objective of reducing maternal and infant mortality and improving the nutritional status of infants. The research aims to identify the inter-relation between diseases and poverty, as well as strategies for cost-effective measures of disease prevention, treatment, and management.
Results achieved by icddr,b with the support of DFATD and other international donors as of the end of the project (December, 2011) include: (i) 1,547,001 patients were treated, mainly for diarrhea, but also for acute respiratory infections and other diseases; (ii) maternal and child health services were provided at the icddr.b’s Matlab facilities (54% of patients were women and 50% were under five years old); (iii) fifty research protocols contributed to changes in health practices and eighteen changes in policy; (iv) during the national H1N1 pandemic, icddr,b conducted sentinel weekly surveillance at hospitals, generating data that was key to revising the Government of Bangladesh’s National Pandemic Preparedness and Response Guidelines; (iv) project-supported research also informed national guidelines for the community-based management of acute malnutrition and the management of tuberculosis in children, and national guidelines and training modules on the care of children with severe acute malnutrition; and (v) icddr,b also sent experts to help the Governments of Zimbabwe, Pakistan and Haiti control and manage cholera, in response to requests from the World Health Organization Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network. The project has contributed to strengthened and expanded icddr,b capacity for medical research, clinical services to the poor (particularly women and children), and strengthened institutional capacity.
