Abdullah H Baqui at Kumudini Medical College Hospital in 2012

Abdullah H. Baqui is a

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

scientist who demonstrated the effectiveness of simple but effective strategies to reduce preventable

newborn In common terminology, a baby is the very young offspring of adult human beings, while infant (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'baby' or 'child') is a formal or specialised synonym. The terms may also be used to refer to Juvenile (orga ...

deaths.

Biography

Baqui was born and grew up in Gopalganj district in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). He graduated from

Dhaka Medical College Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) is a public medical college and hospital located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Established in 1946, the college houses a medical school as well as a tertiary care hospital on its campus. History Site during ...

in 1976, and completed his Masters studies in Public Health (MPH) and Doctorate in Public Health (DrPH) from

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is the public health graduate school of Johns Hopkins University, a private university, private research university primarily based in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded as the Johns Hopkins ...

, Baltimore, USA in 1985 and in 1990 respectively. Baqui's research confirmed: (a) the use of

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

supplementation during

diarrhea Diarrhea (American English), also spelled diarrhoea or diarrhœa (British English), is the condition of having at least three loose, liquid, or watery bowel movements in a day. It often lasts for a few days and can result in dehydration d ...

to reduce the severity of

child mortality Child mortality is the death of children under the age of five. The child mortality rate (also under-five mortality rate) refers to the probability of dying between birth and exactly five years of age expressed per 1,000 live births. It encompa ...

. (b) the effectiveness of trained

community health worker A community health worker (CHW) is a member of a community who provides basic health care, health and medical care within their community, and is capable of providing preventive, promotional and rehabilitation care to that community, typically wit ...

s providing home based health care to reduce

neonatal mortality Perinatal mortality (PNM) is the death of a fetus or neonate and is the basis to calculate the perinatal mortality rate. ''Perinatal'' means "relating to the period starting a few weeks before birth and including the birth and a few weeks after bi ...

by one-third. and (c) use of Hib vaccination in Bangladesh to reduce the incidence of

meningitis Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, intense headache, vomiting and neck stiffness and occasion ...

and X-ray documented

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

in children.

WHO The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has 6 regional offices and 15 ...

and

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

have now recommended the use of zinc as an

adjuvant therapy Adjuvant therapy, also known as adjunct therapy, adjuvant care, or augmentation therapy, is a therapy that is given in addition to the primary or initial therapy to maximize its effectiveness. The surgeries and complex treatment regimens used in ...

for diarrheal episode. Bangladesh developed a national neonatal health strategy in 2009 that references Baqui's work. More recently a WHO-UNICEF joint statement recommends home visits by trained community health worker as a strategy to improve neonatal survival, based in part on Baqui's research. Baqui became a professor in the Department of

International Health International health, also called ''geographic medicine'', '' international medicine'', or ''global health'', is a field of health care, usually with a public health emphasis, dealing with health across regional or national boundaries. One subset ...

at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2009. In May 2012, the CORE Group honored Baqui with the Dory Storms Child Survival Recognition Award. Baqui also received a recognition award in 2012 from the Bangladesh Medical Association in North America. .

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baqui, Abdullah Living people People from Gopalganj District, Bangladesh Dhaka Medical College alumni Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health alumni Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health faculty Bangladeshi public health doctors Bangladeshi emigrants to the United States Year of birth missing (living people)