IEDCR Director Mahmudur Rahman took public health in Bangladesh to new height: Secretary

The health secretary has lauded the work of the just-retired director of the government’s disease monitoring arm, IEDCR, and said Prof Mahmudur Rahman has taken the Bangladesh’s public health sector to a “new height”.

“He contributed not only in Bangladesh, but also in the world by sitting on different WHO committees in his personal capacity,” Syed Monjurul Islam said on Wednesday as long-time colleagues of Prof Rahman bade him an emotional farewell at an event.

He served the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) and National Influenza Center in Bangladesh for about 12 years and retired earlier this month.

When he was transferred to the IEDCR in 2004 from the Department of Epidemiology of the National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine (NIPSOM), the IEDCR was little known.

The scientists at the institute were grappling with uncovering the mystery of an unknown disease, later found as nipah virus, which was causing deaths to a number of people. Samples were then sent to the US for finding the cause of those deaths.

Now, the institute boasts even a WHO reference laboratory. It is also a Global Disease Detection Centre of the US CDC.

The Cambridge doctorate famed epidemiologist had taken the lead role in establishing the National Influenza Center and the Bio-safety Lab 3, Nipah virus detection laboratory and web-based as well as cell-based surveillance system in Bangladesh.

He also introduced a number of internationally recognised courses on public health for the clinicians and health administrators.

It was due to the IEDCR’s surveillance system that Bangladesh was credited in 2OO9 with delaying the pandemic influenza outbreak.

The surveillance system he developed helped Bangladesh know that the influenza virus does not exist during the winter here.

Bangladesh has also become familiar for its open sharing of information for the sake of global public health, particularly during influenza pandemic.

The WHO also appointed him to a number of influenza-related international expert review committees including for the Middle East Coronavirus (MERS) in his personal capacity as an infectious diseases epidemiologist.

“He is not only a scientist, but also a skilled leader who led the institute from the front,” the health secretary said, urging the IEDCR scientists to keep in touch with him during his retirement.

A former senior researcher at IEDCR, Dr Mushtuq Husain who has worked with Prof Rahman during the entire period and retired months before him, said “he is not only a teacher, but also a researcher, skilled administrator and above all, he was neutral in his work which is rare”.

“He created a set of public health professionals who are proud to work in this field,” he said, adding that the government should use his expertise by all means despite his retirement.

Prof Rahman thanked his colleagues for the support during his long stint at the centre. “It was a great time in my life,” he said.

All officers and staff of the IECDR organised the farewell with the new Director, Prof Mirjadee Sabrina Flora, in the chair.