The International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) is an international health research organization located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Dedicated to saving lives through research and treatment, ICDDR,B addresses some of the most critical health concerns facing the world today, ranging from improving neonatal survival to HIV/AIDS.[1] In collaboration with academic and research institutions over the world, ICDDR,B conducts research, training and extension activities, as well as programme-based activities, to develop and share knowledge for global lifesaving solutions.
Established in 1978, the Centre is credited, among other accomplishments, with the discovery of oral rehydration therapy for the treatment of diarrhoea and cholera.[2] Oral rehydration therapy is thought to have saved over 40 million people worldwide.
ICDDR,B is one of the leading research institutes in Bangladesh, releasing, according to the Thomson Reuters Web of Science, 18 percent of the country's publications.[3]
ICDDR,B has a mix of national and international staff, including public health scientists, laboratory scientists, clinicians, nutritionists, epidemiologists, demographers, social and behavioural scientists, IT professionals, and experts in emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, vaccine sciences.
Since 1978, the Centre has trained more than 27,000 health professionals from over 78 countries. Courses provide practical training in hospital management of diarrhoeal diseases, epidemiology, biostatistics, family planning, demographic surveillance, and child survival strategies.
ICDDR,B is supported by about 55 donor countries and organizations, including the Government of Bangladesh, UN specialized agencies, foundations, universities, research institutes and private sector organizations and companies that share the Centre’s concern for the health problems of developing countries and who value its proven experience in helping solve those problems.[4] The Centre is governed by a distinguished multinational Board of Trustees comprising 17 members from all over the world.
In May 2001, ICDDR,B received the first Gates Award for Global Health from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The director of ICDDR,B during the time of the discovery of oral rehydration therapy, Dr Dilip Mahalanabis, received the Pollin Prize for 2002 and Mahidol Award for 2005. In 2007, ICDDR,B received the Leadership Award from the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics.
Achievements: Time Line
1960: Cholera research laboratory begins.
1963: Population surveillance – the world’s longest running field site starts in Matlab.
1966: Cholera fatality reduced to less than 1%.
1969 : Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) is discovered.
1969 : Relationship between breastfeeding and menstruation resumption is demonstrated.
1974 : Tetanus toxoid vaccine recommended, reducing neonatal mortality by 30%.
1978: Rotavirus identified as most common cause of diarrhoea in infants in Bangladesh, and as highest priority for new vaccines.
1982: Rice-based ORS identified as preferred treatment practice.
1982 : Matlab Maternal Child Health and Family Planning project shares its success in lowering national fertility rates with the Government of Bangladesh.
1983: Epidemic Control and Preparedness Programme begins.
1984 : Full Expanded Programme on Immunization data is validated (and begins). Benefit of measles vaccine demonstrated, leading to inclusion in EPI.
1985: Cholera vaccine trial launched.
1988: Treatment of, and research into, acute respiratory infections/pneumonia begins.
1989 :Matlab record keeping system, specially adapted for Government use, extended to the national family planning programme.
1993:New Vibrio cholerae 0139 (Bengal strain) identified and characterized by ICDDR,B.
1994: ICDDR,B epidemic response team goes to Goma to assist cholera-stricken Rwandan refugees and helps reduce mortality from as high as 48.7% to less than 1%.
1995 : Maternal immunization with pneumococcal vaccine shown to be likely to protect infants up to 22 weeks.
1998: HIV sero-surveillance begins in Bangladesh on behalf of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Bangladesh.
1999 : Protocolized Management of Severely Malnourished Children decreases case fatality from 20% to less than 5%. Published in Lancet.
2000: ICDDR,B assists Government of Bangladesh with control of major dengue epidemic in Dhaka.
2000: International, peer-reviewed and indexed ICDDR,B journal is renamed Journal of Health Population and Nutrition.
2001: Studies on violence against women in Bangladesh initiated.
2001: ICDDR,B opens the first tuberculosis laboratory in Bangladesh.
2001 :Oral cholera vaccine, tested at ICDDR,B, is approved for use by WHO.
2001: Studies on the effects of arsenic on health begin.
2002: ICDDR,B studies establish that zinc treatment of diarrhoea reduces under-5 mortality by 50%.
2002: First HIV voluntary counselling and testing unit in Bangladesh opens at ICDDR,B.
2003: New research programmes on HIV/AIDS and Poverty & Health.
2004: Studies on preventing high levels of childhood drowning begin.
2005: ICDDR,B team assists in post-tsunami health needs assessment in Sri Lanka.
2006: Dispersible zinc tablets launched through unique public-private partnership in national scale up to treat diarrhoea in children under five years.
2006: Studies on abortion and menstrual regulation initiated.
2007: Oral cholera vaccine Dukoral, tested at Matlab in 1985, launched in Bangladesh.
2008: Introduce SHEBA (an integrated Hospital Management System) and start the journey as a paperless hospital
2009: ICDDR,B opens a ward for ARI (Swine Flu) patients.
2010: ICDDR,B celebrates 50 years of operations. Sends teams to combat deadly cholera outbreaks in Pakistan and Haiti. Research team discovers and characterise the "TLC phage" which changes the chromosomal sequence of the cholera bacterium, enabling incoming toxigenic CTX phage genome to be incorporated and transforming a harmless strain of V. cholerae to a dangerous killer. Issues its first patent from the Director of United States Patent and Trademark Office (United States Patent US7638271) for inventing a new diagnostic method for tuberculosis, called antibodies produced by peripheral blood lymphocytes in culture supernatant, or ALS.
ICDDR,B hosts the secretariat of Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative CHNRI