Dr FBM Abdul Latif, director at the Directorate General of Medical Education (DGME) and a former director of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), has passed away after exhibiting Covid-19-like symptoms. He was 59.
He breathed his last at around 12pm on Thursday at Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital in Bogra, according to Dr Azizur Rahman, line director at Alternative Medicine Care (AMC) at the DGHS.
He showed several symptoms of the pandemic disease while undergoing treatment at the hospital, Dr Aziz further said.
“His sample was collected on Wednesday for testing; the result has not come yet,” he added.
At the time of his death, Dr Latif was director of Homoeopathy and Traditional Medicine Education at the DGME.
Speaking to Dhaka Tribune, Prof Shah Monir Hossain, former DGHS director who is also one of the members of DGHS’s Public Health Advisory Committee, said Dr Abdul Latif had gone to Bogra the day before Eid-ul-Azha for the Eid holidays.
He fell ill with high fever the very next day and was taken to the hospital, where he was admitted in the ICU, where he passed away.
After serving in several roles at the DGHS, Dr Abdul Latif was appointed deputy director of the Homoeopathy and Traditional Medicine unit in the DGHS in 2018, before getting promoted as the director of the same unit the following year.
He served as the director of the unit from March 2019 to January 8 this year, before he was appointed as a director at the newly formed DGME.
Born in Kishoreganj, Abdul Latif grew up in Bogra, where his family moved and settled a long time ago.
He was a student of the 22nd batch of Rajshahi Medical College.
His former colleague Dr Aziz said he was supposed to go on post-retirement leave in three or four months.
Dr Latif’s namaz-e-janaza is scheduled to be held at 8:30pm on Thursday, following which he will be buried in Bogra.
The Bangladesh Medical Association has expressed its deep condolence over Dr Latif’s death.
