Amid the gloom and doom created by the corona pandemic, there is noted a bright glimmer of hope in our social sectors. Hopefully, the pandemic will subside some day. Even if it takes some months, life in Bangladesh can look forward to better days from that point knowing that efforts in recent years have been quite fruitful to lift up our life and health expectations and that the same could go on improving steadily in the future based on today’s attainments.
According to the latest report by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the average life expectancy of the people of Bangladesh has risen to 72.3 years in 2018, as compared to 72 years in 2017.In 2016, the average life expectancy of the people of Bangladesh was 71.6 years. The life expectancy of men in the country currently stands at 70.8 years, while that of women is 73.8 years, the report said.
The report, titled “Monitoring the Situation of Vital Statistics of Bangladesh (MSVSB),” was brought to public attention at the BBS building in Dhaka’s Agargaon last week. Planning Minister MA Mannan presented the key findings of the report. The project director of the MSVSB said women in the country suffer from fewer diseases than men, which is the reason for their higher life expectancy.In 2016, the average life expectancy of the people of Bangladesh was 71.6 years, while it was 70.9 years in 2015, and 70.7 years in 2014. Thus, the statistics prove that expectations of longer life and better health have been fulfilled considerably in recent years.
There has been progress, overall, in Bangladesh’s health sector during the last decade as the population’s average life expectancy has increased, and the rate of child and maternal deaths has decreased.Communicable diseases like tuberculosis, malaria and polio are on the verge eradication while the treatment of diarrhoea and pneumonia has improved.
The average life span has also increased due to progress in various social indices, including a decrease in the child and maternal mortality rate, a fall in child marriage, plus a rise in opportunities for health and education.
According to BBS’ data, the child mortality rate has fallen by 41 per cent in the last decade. In 2008 the child mortality rate was 3.1 per cent, and it decreased to 1.8 percent in 2017.
In 2008, some 340 mothers-out of every lakh-died during childbirth. The figure has reduced to 169 in 2019.Bangladesh successfully implemented its Expanded Vaccination Programme throughout the last decade. The Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunisation conferred prime minister Sheikh Hasina with a Vaccine Hero award on September 23, 2019, for Bangladesh’s successes with its vaccination programmes.
The country was successful in controlling communicable diseases-as evidenced by the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring Bangladesh free from polio and tetanus. Significant progress has been achieved in eradicating malaria and tuberculosis too.
In 2009, the rate of people affected by tuberculosis in the country was 387 per one lakh population. In 2019, the figure decreased to 221, according to the Global Tuberculosis Report 2019.Additionally, in 2008, a total of 84,690 persons were affected by malaria, and 154 of them died. In 2018, the number of people affected by malaria decreased to 10,523 and only seven died.
In 2009 the number of districts prone to filariasis was 19, but now, Bangladesh is free of the parasite.The advance of communication technology has helped the country’s health sector reach more people in the last decade. A high-quality telemedicine service is now available in 18 hospitals, at different levels, providing specialist health care to villagers. Web cameras have been given to all upazila hospitals, district hospitals, medical colleges, and institute hospitals.As a result, an opportunity has been created for specialist physicians working in high-level hospitals to provide consultations for patients admitted to lower-level hospitals. Telemedicine services are also available at the union’s information and service centres.
Telemedicine services are being provided, through Skype video conference, at the country’s 22 union information and service centres. The physicians sitting in the Management Information System (MIS) centre at the Directorate of Health have been providing medical advice to the patients, every working day, free of cost.
The Directorate of Health in 2015 introduced the health service named ShasthoBatayon. In 2019, some 50 lakh people received health services by calling ShasthoBatayon’s number, 16263.A number of specialised hospitals have been built in the last decade. The National Institute of Digestive Diseases Research and Hospital has been set up at Mohakhali, in Dhaka, for liver diseases; while the Sheikh Hasina National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute has been established for burn victims.
Further, the project to construct a 1,000-bed Super Specialized Hospital under Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, a joint initiative by Bangladesh and Korea’s governments, is underway.
Medical education also expanded in the decade. From 2010 to 2018, 14 government and five army medical colleges were established. Five new government medical colleges were commissioned in 2018. Permissions have been given for three medical universities to be established in Chattogram, Rajshahi and Sylhet.
