Dr Md Moyeen Uddin, associate professor of Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College (SOMC), is the first doctor in the country to succumb to death from Covid-19. He died at Kurmitola General Hospital on Wednesday morning.
Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in Bangladesh, Dr Moyeen had been working on the frontline in the battle against coronavirus in Sylhet, during which he was most likely infected.
Dr Moyeen tested positive for Covid-19, after the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) tested his sample on April 5. He became the first coronavirus patient in Sylhet. Before that, Dr Moyeen was in home quarantine from March 30.
As his condition deteriorated, he was admitted to a local hospital on April 7. The next day he was shifted to Kurmitola General Hospital in Dhaka.
Doctors at the hospital pronounced him dead at 6:45am on Wednesday while he was still being treated at the ICU unit of the hospital, where he was transferred on Monday.
He has left behind two young children, his wife, relatives and well-wishers to mourn his death.
Zahid Maleque: Prime Minister will stand by his family
At the daily online coronavirus briefing on Wednesday, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had expressed her deepest condolences at the death of the doctor and said she would stand by Dr Moyeen’s family.
The health minister expressed his condolences as well.
“I feel as if one of our brothers, our fellow fighter, has succumbed to death. He got infected while treating other Covid-19 patients,” he said.
At the health briefing, DGHS Director General (DG) Dr Abul Kalam Azad said he went to see Dr Moyeen and his grieving wife at Kurmitola General Hospital immediately after he received news of his death.
“Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said Dr Moyeen’s family will get insurance and other benefits as soon as possible,” said the DG.
Allegations against Osmani Medical authority and DGHS
An uproar from people has arisen on social media, as allegedly Moyeen did not get proper treatment in Sylhet when his condition deteriorated.
A student of Dr Moyeen at SOMC said a group of doctors at the hospital wanted to admit him (Moyeen) at the hospital’s ICU but the hospital authority did not allow it.
“Sir wanted to go to Dhaka for better treatment, and there was an air ambulance of the Air Force available. But a recommendation was needed from the DG of DGHS. However, the DG did not give the recommendation when it was applied for,” a student wishing anonymity said.
“Even a few days ago, an AC land was airlifted to Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Dhaka. The AC land is a grade nine government officer, whereas Sir was a grade six government official. He did not get an ICU bed at his own hospital and neither did he get a government ambulance,” the student continued.
There was no maintenance team for ventilator support at the hospital also, the student added.
On allegations of not giving Moyeen proper treatment, SOMC Director Brig Gen Yunusur Rahman said: “Our hospital is a general hospital and does not have facilities to treat Covid-19 patients. And there are other critical patients in our ICU and for that reason it was not possible to admit him here.”
“We wanted to treat him in Sylhet but his family decided to take him to Dhaka,” Brig Gen Yunusur added.
On allegations of an ambulance not being made available for the doctor (Moyeen) to be taken to Dhaka, the director said the hospital did not have any ICU-supported ambulance and so the hospital authority referred the doctor to a private hospital having an ICU-supported ambulance.
54 doctors infected in Bangladesh
As of Tuesday around 100 healthcare professionals, including 54 doctors, have tested positive for Covid-19 in the country, according to the Bangladesh Doctors’ Foundation (BDF).
BDF founder and Chief Administrator Dr Nirupam Das disclosed the tally to reporters. Two of the doctors are undergoing treatment in ICU.
Earlier, in a Facebook post on Monday, Dr Nirupam Das wrote: “With utmost grief, we are announcing that the number of infected doctors has exceeded 50.”
The BDF obtained the information from the authorities concerned, he added.
Most of the doctors infected were in Dhaka and Narayanganj—two major clusters of community transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus which causes Covid-19.
Around 300 health professionals were currently in home quarantine, Dr Nirupam said.
The latest figures mark a threefold increase in the number of infected health professionals in just three days.
As of April 11, the BDF estimated that 29 doctors, nurses, and other health workers had contracted the virus.
According to media reports, at least five doctors tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday.
Among them, three were in Dhaka district, including two in the capital city.
The two doctors in Dhaka were employed at a private hospital in Moghbazar. After the doctors and five nurses were diagnosed with the virus, the hospital was locked down.
To date, Bangladesh has reported 1,231 confirmed cases of Covid-19, with a death toll of 50.
As of Wednesday, Covid-19 had infected over 1.9 million people and claimed 126,738 lives globally since its discovery in December 2019, according to Worldometer.