Govt cancels order that made IEDCR researcher Mushtuq Husain OSD

The government has cancelled an order making IEDCR’s senior researcher Mohammad Mushtuq Husain an Officer on Special Duty (OSD), a day after issuing the order.

A new circular was issued by the health and family welfare ministry on Tuesday.

Husain, an anti-autocracy movement leader and former DUCSU general secretary, expressed solidarity with students demanding fresh admission tests for medical and dental colleges on Friday. 

The Bangladesh Medical Association executive committee member was made an OSD – a post that rarely offers opportunity for work – on Monday and attached to the Directorate General of Health Services.

Husain is the principal scientific officer and head of the medical social science department at the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research, the government's disease control arm.

Monday’s circular said Husain had been made an OSD “in public interest”, triggering much criticism in the social media.

Many, who know about his contribution in Bangladesh’s medical research, expressed shock at the earlier decision.

The health minister has rejected allegations of question paper leak and blamed the demonstrators of trying to put the government in a tight spot.

Husain completed his MBBS from Dhaka Medical College before studying food and nutrition at the Dhaka University. 

The JaSaD Chhatra League leader was elected the DUCSU general secretary in 1989.

He later obtained his PhD from Cambridge University.

There are allegations that he was not appointed a Dhaka University teacher on political grounds.

Dr Husain has been working as a core group member of the National Rapid Response Team for outbreak investigation of public health emergency, disease surveillance.

He has been a member of the national committee to review polio in Bangladesh since last year.

He has a number of publications in journals on the outbreak of Nipah virus, TB, cholera, hepatitis E, bronchiolitis and dengue in Bangladesh. He also wrote on anaemia, acute malnutrition in children, and obesity.

Dr Husain also headed various health-related surveys in Bangladesh.

WHO’s Global Infection Prevention and Control Network member Husain is also a fellow of the International Association of National Public Health Institutes.

The former Cambridge Philosophical Society member has taught at private universities apart from conducting trainings.