The recent floods in Bangladesh have seen a huge surge in the number of people suffering from diarrhoea. To help combat this potentially fatal disease, on 22 August DFID announced a £250,000 contribution to The International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B). DFID's assistance to the ICDDR,B is ensuring that life-saving treatment is being provided to the people who need it.
In good hands
The ICDDR,B hospital is unusually busy. Every one of its beds is occupied and a tent has been erected to accommodate ever more patients. A five-year old girl, Munira, has just been admitted and now lies unconscious on one bed. Tubes feed liquid through her hand and leg. A few hours ago, she was in fine health. Then the diarrhoea started. It worsened quickly. Her parents gave her oral rehydration liquid, but this did not help. She lost consciousness and her parents brought her immediately to the hospital.
Her father now sits at her bedside, worry lining his face. But he knows that Munira is in good hands.
"I trust ICDDR,B," he says. "They know how to cure my daughter".
Coping with unprecedented demand
The Government of Bangladesh's health sector programme - to which DFID is the largest grant contributor - has also allocated $1.1 million for medicines and supplies. The UK has now given $4.2 million in immediate aid for the flood victims. Food, water, shelter and life-saving medicines have reached almost 1 million people in the worst affected areas. Munira and her parents will tell you that it's money well spent.
His trust is well placed. Since the floods began, ICDDR,B has treated nearly one-fifth of all diarrhoea cases in the greater Dhaka area. The total official figure for reported diarrhoea cases is well over 100,000; the actual figure is probably more than twice that number. In its 47-year history, ICDDR,B has never had to cope with as many patients in a 24-hour period. On a single day, it recorded 1,045 cases.
People living in and around Dhaka are suffering the worst. Its burgeoning population has made Dhaka the world's fastest growing city. The number of people living in slums has increased and their living conditions get worse every year. The slums have virtually no utilities and they are the first areas to flood, because they are on low-lying land. The city's unplanned and unregulated development, along with its encroachment into rivers, lakes, canals and drainage channels, only makes things worse.
Help from DFID
Clearly, ICDDR,B has a crucial role to play during floods. Almost one-third of diarrhoea patients coming to this hospital could die without its immediate support and treatment. The almost critical overload of ICDDR,B staff and facilities prompted DFID Bangladesh to donate a further half million dollars - in addition to the ongoing core funding of £7 million over five years from DFID's Central Research Department. $400,000 of the grant came from DFID's Conflict, Humanitarian and Security Department funds, and $100,000 from DFID's contribution to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for flood relief. The money will pay for treatment, for the temporary tents, for medical supplies - especially IV fluids and antibiotics, and for cleaning materials, electricity and food for patients and their accompanying carers.