Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh had reported its first Covid-19 infection case on March 8 and spent six months with the deadly disease. But still there is no clear concept about the current coronavirus situation in the country
However, there are questions from all strata of people whether the ‘peak time’ of the virus is over, or it is in the offing? No one understands when the situation will return to normal. For the last two to three weeks, the average death rate has been 40 per day. So, it is feared whether Bangladesh is going to fall into a slow and prolonged covid-19 cycle.
Health experts are also confused over the corona situation here. They do not agree with the information giving by the Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS), Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) and the Health Ministry, who are working at the field level to control the virus. Even, there is a difference of opinion between the National Technical Advisory Committee formed by the government and the Health Department.
Meanwhile, over the issue the DGHS officials have sat with the Public Health Advisory Committee. In that meeting, the DGHS asked the Advisory Committee why the death rate is rising? Are there any other diseases responsible for the rising of death? However, there were no proper answers.
The question aroused over the IEDCR’s R-not rates (Virus Reproduction Rates). It said, R-not is fluctuating within 0.8 to 0.9, means one corona positive man is infecting less then one man. So, five coronavirus positive are transmitting to three men. As a result, the infection rates are reducing, said IEDCR, adding, if this situation continues for two weeks then the overall situation will become normal.
However, the health experts have questioned the IEDCR’s statistics. They said that the exact picture of corona cases is not available yet as there were few tests and no random tests. So, it is not possible to understand whether the cononavirus is now at the ‘highest peak’ in the country. It is not clear how accurate the R-not rate that IEDCR is talking about, especially due to low testing.
In this circumstance, people are utterly confused over the corona situation even after six month of the first infection on March 8. The Health Minister also said, everything will become normal soon. All kinds of restriction have also been lifted. There are no health directives in the roads and vehicles. Meanwhile, Bangladesh has been ranked 14th positions, one of the highest infected countries.
When asked why Bangladesh is failing to understand the true nature of corona, IEDCR advisor and its former chief scientific officer Dr. Mushtaq Hossain said currently what is happening here is ‘passive surveillance’ that means we are getting the number of those critical patients who are coming out. Tensed patients are doing tests. But others are not. If you want to catch them, we have to go to work places and slum areas. Now we are getting one kind of image.
“We need more accurate measures. We need active surveillance going from house to house looking for patients. If that is the case, we will get a clearer picture,” said Dr. Mushtaq.
Former DGHS Director Prof. Dr. Bae-Nazir Ahmed said that we do not know the real picture of the corona infection in Bangladesh. The daily reports from the Department of Health are vague. The passive path that we are taking in terms of information is the wrong path.
“The patient will come to us, we will check them and then the information will be available. But we have to come across the patients during this epidemic. And we call this ‘active surveillance’.
Bangladesh had reported its first Covid-19 infection case on March 8 and spent six months with the deadly disease. But still there is no clear concept about the current coronavirus situation in the country
However, there are questions from all strata of people whether the ‘peak time’ of the virus is over, or it is in the offing? No one understands when the situation will return to normal. For the last two to three weeks, the average death rate has been 40 per day. So, it is feared whether Bangladesh is going to fall into a slow and prolonged covid-19 cycle.
Health experts are also confused over the corona situation here. They do not agree with the information giving by the Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS), Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) and the Health Ministry, who are working at the field level to control the virus. Even, there is a difference of opinion between the National Technical Advisory Committee formed by the government and the Health Department.
Meanwhile, over the issue the DGHS officials have sat with the Public Health Advisory Committee. In that meeting, the DGHS asked the Advisory Committee why the death rate is rising? Are there any other diseases responsible for the rising of death? However, there were no proper answers.
The question aroused over the IEDCR’s R-not rates (Virus Reproduction Rates). It said, R-not is fluctuating within 0.8 to 0.9, means one corona positive man is infecting less then one man. So, five coronavirus positive are transmitting to three men. As a result, the infection rates are reducing, said IEDCR, adding, if this situation continues for two weeks then the overall situation will become normal.
However, the health experts have questioned the IEDCR’s statistics. They said that the exact picture of corona cases is not available yet as there were few tests and no random tests. So, it is not possible to understand whether the cononavirus is now at the ‘highest peak’ in the country. It is not clear how accurate the R-not rate that IEDCR is talking about, especially due to low testing.
In this circumstance, people are utterly confused over the corona situation even after six month of the first infection on March 8. The Health Minister also said, everything will become normal soon. All kinds of restriction have also been lifted. There are no health directives in the roads and vehicles. Meanwhile, Bangladesh has been ranked 14th positions, one of the highest infected countries.
When asked why Bangladesh is failing to understand the true nature of corona, IEDCR advisor and its former chief scientific officer Dr. Mushtaq Hossain said currently what is happening here is ‘passive surveillance’ that means we are getting the number of those critical patients who are coming out. Tensed patients are doing tests. But others are not. If you want to catch them, we have to go to work places and slum areas. Now we are getting one kind of image.
“We need more accurate measures. We need active surveillance going from house to house looking for patients. If that is the case, we will get a clearer picture,” said Dr. Mushtaq.
Former DGHS Director Prof. Dr. Bae-Nazir Ahmed said that we do not know the real picture of the corona infection in Bangladesh. The daily reports from the Department of Health are vague. The passive path that we are taking in terms of information is the wrong path.
“The patient will come to us, we will check them and then the information will be available. But we have to come across the patients during this epidemic. And we call this ‘active surveillance’.
