The Okamoto Medical Fund | Medical Affairs in Bangladesh
The followings are the contents of the lecture given at Nara Medical University by Dr. Reza and me under the title of
"What can we do for medical support in the developing country ".
The lecture impressed the students very much and helped them to realize that our medical work should not be limited to the rich world we live in.
(* Some of the pictures below taken in Bangladesh were sent to us from our friends. We are looking for the copyright holders of them.)
Bangladesh
Location
(1) Bangladesh is situated in South Asia, between Myanmar and India.
(2) The total land area is about 144,000 sq km (equivalent to that of Hokkaido).
(3) The total population is about 145 million.
A typical picture of downtown in Bangladesh indicating socio-economic conditions of the country.
Medical Facilities in Bangladesh
A Ward of Diarrhea Diseases in a main Hospital in Dhaka City
This is the common feature of a hospital in Bangladesh.
Very short of hospital beds for a large number of patients.
Diseases like diarrhea, cholera and dysentery are treated here.
A Ward of Infectious Diseases Hospital in the Capital City
Patients cannot help lying on the floor due to lack of beds.
Infectious diseases like malaria, typhoid, tuberculosis etc are treated here, but they are Very short of drugs in the hospital for a large number of patients.
As I was giving a lecture to the students, I noticed the miserable medical situation still existing in the present Bangladesh in comparison with high medical levels of ours. Therefore, I came to read again "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights" to find out where the problem came from in spite of there being the fact that "all men are created equal".
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations, Article 25
- Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
- Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
-Adopted and proclaimed by the United Nations in December 10, 1948.
Nobel Peace Prize Winner from Bangladesh
This book was introduced by Dr. Reza. The author was Prof. Muhammad Yunus who was the then president of Chittagong University (Dr. Reza's Alma Mater), and received the Novel Prize for Peace in 2006. He established the Grameen Bank project. This project is to provide a small loans to poor people and teach them some financial principles so that they could help themselves.
As I got impressed with this book, I started to think about the same kind of system in the medical field. By providing them with the fund to set up the medical facilities, I thought I could help the local doctors to help themselves by developing the medical services there.