Corona made us realize to improve our health system
Original Facebook link of this post: 1. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10216630318018210&set=a.10203716466900003
Dr. Md. Jafar Ullah
Professor
Department of Agronomy
Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Email: jafarullahsau@gmail.com
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For a long, it has been a matter of great satisfaction for many of us that living abroad is a sign of having a higher level of ‘social status’ in comparison to staying at home or own country. This 'pleasant attitude' gets at its peak if the Bangladeshi foreigners live in any of the highly developed rich countries, whatever may be his/her profession where they stay in.
But when the corona was prevalent in those countries and there was no specific treatment of corona even over there, they flew from there to his/her own country to get his/her own people nearby. Well, when we fall in danger, we expect our own relatives around us, at least to have mental strength. Similar is the case with elite people who used to send their children to abroad for study, thinking of that - Bangladesh lacks a status of having good education systems. In general, rich people, when they fall sick, fly to a developed country where modern sophisticated medical treatments are available.
One statement was made by a Bangladeshi physician in a private television 'talk show' over the 'corona' saying that, 'the policy makers should realize now the importance to develop our health management system, specially to give emphasis on the medical research system so that they could get treatment in his own country in future'. Probably, another physician added to that opinion saying 'once upon a time, the Malaysian government used to send lobbyist in Bangladesh to increase ‘Admission quota’ for the Malaysian medical students in our Dhaka Medical College. But now Bangladeshi students go to Malaysia to study medical science.'
‘When the elites of a country go abroad for treatment, it means that their own health system needs to be improved’. The reader can guess whose statement I quoted with a bit modification. It was the former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia. This feeling was best felt on the eve of corona in Bangladesh, as the rich people do not have any choice to get 'corona treatment' even in abroad (if infected).
It is true that till to date, scientists could not discover either vaccine or any particular medicine for the recovery from corona. But the South Korea, for example, managed corona in the country by performing massive tests to screen out the corona positive patients from the main stream of people and these tests were even totally free of cost for its citizens.
The corona did not excuse any specific class of people. It caught even many of the celebrities, scientists, doctors, queen, princes, prince and many famous members of the elite group so far in many countries.
In the initial stage the government hospitals and also the private hospitals did not have enough safety materials for the physicians like PPE (Personal Protection Equipment), gloves, masks, testing kits, ventilators, hand cleansers and other necessities) so as to handle corona patients, because the corona infection was not thought of earlier. Based on this situation, government and some corporate hospitals took initiatives to collect those from abroad. China was the first country to help Bangladesh in this respect.
Besides the government and private hospitals, some rich persons came forward to help supplying these safety materials as well. The sportsmen and other celebrities along with some national and multinational companies came forward donating a large amount of money for buying such safety materials for doctors. Many persons including the civil administration, political parties, student’s organization and social activists extended their hands to provide foods for the poor.
(To be continued)
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