NORTH SOUTH UNIVERSITY

Assignment on Major Public Health

Problem In Bangladesh

Course Title: Public Health

Course Code: 101

Submitted by:
Submitted To:
Zahidul Islam Emon
Hossain
BBA- 2nd Semester
Sec- 27
BBA
ID # 1520902631

UNIVERSITY

Moon Moon
Faculty of

NORTH SOUTH

Submission Date: 03rd December, 2015

Major Public Health Problems in Bangladesh:

Population Problem
Problem of Malnutrition
Communicable Disease Problem
Medical Care Problem
Violence Against Women
Problem of Social Violence

Common Health Problems in BangladeshRural :

Common Health Problems Bangladesh- Rural: Malnutrition,
Worm infestation, Skin infections, Diarrhea, Acute respiratory
infections (ARIs), Anemia, Tuberculosis, Malaria, Leprosy, etc.
Lack of health care services, Poor housing, Poor sanitation.

Common Health Problems in Bangladesh- Urban :

Common Health Problems Bangladesh- Urban Hypertension, Air
pollution, Sound pollution, Heart diseases, Diabetes, Cancer,
Dengue fever, Drug addiction.

Malnutrition:
Malnutrition is the condition that develops when the body does
not get the right amount of the vitamins, minerals, and other
nutrients it needs to maintain healthy tissues and organ
function.

Malnutrition in Bangladesh:

Malnutrition in Bangladesh has been a persistent problem

for the poverty-stricken country. The World Bank estimates that
Bangladesh is ranked 1st in the world of the number of children
suffering from malnutrition. In Bangladesh, 26% of the on
populatiare undernourished and 46% of the children suffers
from moderate to severe underweight problem.43% of children
under 5 years old are stunted. One in five preschool age
children are vitamin A deficient and one in two are anemic.
Women also suffer most from malnutrition. To provide their
family with food they pass on quality food which are essential
for their nutrition.

Causes of malnutrition
Most terrain of Bangladesh is low-lying and is prone to flooding. A large
population of the country lives in areas that are at risk of experiencing extreme
annual flooding that brings large destruction to the crops. Every year, 20% to
30% of Bangladesh is flooded. Floods threaten food security and their effects on
agricultural production cause food shortage.
The health and sanitation environment also affects malnutrition. Inadequacies in
water supply, hygiene and sanitation have direct impacts on infectious diseases,
such as malaria, parasitic diseases, and schistosomiasis. People are exposed to
both water scarcity and poor water quality. Groundwater is often found to
contain high arsenic concentration. Sanitation coverage in rural areas was only
35% in 1995. Almost one in three people in Bangladesh defecates in the open
among the poorest families. Only 32% of the latrines in rural areas attain the
international standards for a sanitary latrine. People are exposed to feces in their
environment daily. The immune system falls and the disease processes
exacerbate loss of nutrients, which worsens malnutrition. The diseases also
contribute through the loss of appetite, lowered absorption of vitamins and
nutrients, and loss of nutrients through diarrhea or vomiting.
Unemployment and job problems also lead to malnutrition in Bangladesh. In
2010, the unemployment rate was 5.1%. People do not have working facilities
all year round and they are unable to afford the minimum cost of a nutritious
diet due to the unsteady income.

Effects of malnutrition in Bangladesh

Health effects: Undernourished mothers often give birth to infants
who will have difficulty growing up and developing into a
healthy teenager. They develop health problems such as
wasting, stunting, underweight, anemia, night blindness and
iodine deficiency. As a result, Bangladesh has a high child
mortality rate and is ranked 57 in the under-5 mortality rank.
Economic effects: As 40% of the population in Bangladesh are
children, malnutrition and its health effects among children can
potentially lead to a lower educational attainment rate. Only
50% of an age group of children in Bangladesh managed to
enroll into secondary school education. This would result in a
low-skilled and low productivity workforce which would affect
the economic growth rate of Bangladesh with only 3% GDP
growth in 2009.

Efforts to combat malnutrition

Many programmes and efforts have been implemented to solve the problem of
malnutrition in Bangladesh. UNICEF together with the government of
Bangladesh and many other NGOs such as Helen Keller International, focus on
improving the nutritional access of the population throughout their life-cycle
from infants to the child-bearing mother. The impacts of the intervention are
significant. Night blindness has reduced from 3.76% to 0.04% and iodinedeficiency among school-aged children has decreased from 42.5% to 33.8%.

Country Programs and GoB initiatives

Considering the magnitude of the problem and potential
adverse effects on human resource, Bangladesh Government
has initiated Bangladesh Integrated Nutrition Project (BINP)
since 1996. The major components of the project to provide
supplementary foods to severely malnourished children less
than two years, pregnant women with BMI < 18.5, and continue this supplementation to lactating mothers during first six
months. This project has been started initially in 20 thanas and
further expanded to a total of 60 thanas. The food supplementation is provided through a Community Nutrition Centre

(CNC) with a population of approximately 1000- 1500. This

project is on-going for last four years and is expected to finish
by December 2001. A mid term evaluation showed substantial
improvement in reducing rate of severely malnourished
children (from 18% to 6%), moderate reduc- tion in proportion
of low birth weight.
Observing the success with BINP, Bangladesh Government is
planning to launch a countrywide programme " National
Nutrition Program (NNP) to be started in 2001. The addi- tional
components in this new programme include; urban nutrition,
adolescent nutrition, newly-married couple strate- gy and more
emphasis on behavioural and communication changes (BCC).

SUMMARY:
Malnutrition is a major public health problem in the region of
South Asia. The situation perhaps more worse in Bangladesh
with 40-50% low birth weight, 53% of under five children are
underweight and 55% are stunted. This situation of "silent
emergency" calls for special attention. Bangladesh Government
in association with other international organizations initiated
Bangladesh Integrated Nutrition Project (BINP) to combat the
malnutrition situation. The project provides food
supplementation to all severely malnourished children under 2
years of age and targeted pregnant and lactating mothers. With
the success of preliminary results of BINP, the Government of
Bangladesh will launch a National Nutrition Program for next
ten years to improve the malnutrition situation.
Although, it is a governmental effort, the problem of malnutrition perhaps is multi-factorial and need involvement of
various sectors and people of different disciplines. The purpose
of this review is to identify the problem and provide practical
guidelines for the health professionals for correct diagnosis and
management for malnutrition.