Bangladesh has shown success in Covid-19 vaccination programme, but there was scope to do better in the fight against coronavirus and the vaccination drive had the authorities taken initiatives to increase public participation.
However, an opportunity has been created to revamp the health sector. All should be more attentive so that the opportunity is not missed, said speakers at a roundtable at Prothom Alo office in Dhaka on Thursday.
The meeting titled ‘Public involvement in coronavirus vaccination: Success, challenges and actions’ was jointly organised by The Hunger Project Bangladesh and Prothom Alo, in cooperation with UNICEF.
The chief guest of the meeting, State Minister for Planning Shamsul Alam said the government performed well in vaccination and economic management and many international organisations and media outlets have carried the success story of Bangladesh.
The decision not to go into a strict lockdown was very correct as it would have damaged the economy further. People were active during the pandemic and the government leadership was perfect, he added.
The situation
Shamsul Haque, line director of maternal and child health programme and member secretary of the vaccination committee of the health directorate, briefed the meeting about the vaccination drive in Bangladesh.
He said Bangladesh was involved in the first phase of global discussion on vaccine collection. Later, the vaccines were procured as per the plan of World Health Organization (WHO) and COVAX.
The country has so far brought a total of 320 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine. Of them, 180 million doses have been bought from other countries.
Shamsul Haque also said the target was to vaccinate 130 million people. Currently, 98 per cent people have received the first dose while 91 per cent received the second dose. Besides, 86 per cent of teens aged between 12 and 17 have been vaccinated in the country.
Sakina Sultana, director of The Hunger Project's Covid-19 eradication programme, presented the views of 560 participants in 40 panel discussions held in 22 districts. According to the presentation, 85 per cent of people think that vaccinations make people sick; 50 per cent do not know actual information about the booster dose, 10 per cent think vaccination is not necessary. Apart from that, there are various misconceptions among the general people.
Mentioning that people have learned a lot from the pandemic, Badiul Alam Majumdar, chair of the meeting and country director of The Hunger Project Bangladesh, said the pandemic still prevails and there is fear of new epidemic. It needs to make people aware so that they take responsibility for preventing the pandemic.
Statements of public health experts
Four public health experts were present at the round table. Mushtuq Husain, adviser to the government's Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), said, "This is not the last pandemic. It has shown where the lacks of the health sector are. If the health system is not revamped, the health will not be good in the future.”
He also noted that the success in the case of Covid-19 is temporary.
Benazir Ahmed, former director of the health directorate’s disease control branch, said there are some methods to engage the public in situations like pandemics. A national action plan was needed in this regard, but it was done on an ad hoc basis.
Public health expert Abu Jamil Faisal said there was a need for a plan and its implementation at the local level and coordination among local and national levels regarding the pandemic.
Romen Raihan, associate professor of Public Health and Informatics Department of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, highlighted the importance of inter-ministerial coordination and said the number of research was low in the country. Besides, the authorities could not convince people about many issues, including quarantine and isolation.
More to do
Sohrab Hasan, associate editor of Prothom Alo, attributed the success in the fight against Covid-19 and vaccination drives to people’s proactiveness and government initiatives.
Highlighting the working experience in Bangladesh, China and Papua New Guinea, Badrul Hasan, social and behavior change manager of UNICEF Bangladesh, said technical skills are needed to implement an action plan, in addition to formulating it.
Shahidul Alam, manager of the non-communicable disease control programme, said there is a shortage of manpower at the field level. Bangladesh has been successful in vaccination thanks to the tireless work of the health sector staff.
Khairul Alam, director of the newborn development project of Save the Children, said information and messages are not the same thing. The proper messages regarding the pandemic could not be reached to the people.
Rafiqul Islam, director of the Islamic Foundation, said the role of religious leaders in eliminating prejudice, ignorance and misconceptions is great. When the imams or khatibs say something, it inspires people.
At the beginning of the round table meeting, Prothom Alo Associate Editor Abdul Qayyum delivered his welcome speech and said the pandemic situation is somewhat under control, but there is no chance to remain inactive.
The programme was moderated by Prothom Alo Assistant Editor Firoz Choudhury.