Reflections on TB and chest diseases
by Saidur Rahman
There is at least five TB patients in an assembly of 100 people. That is one in every 20 people is suffering from TB. TB is no respecter of persons. It may attack any person at any time irrespective of poor or rich, old or child, male or female, black or white.
The above facts have been revealed by Dr. A.K.Md. Ahsan Ali, one of the few renowned and pioneering TB and Chest Specialists of Bangladesh. The book under review is the product of his assiduous studies, research and long professional experience he gathered in this field. There was a time when the very name of TB would create panic among people and those suffering from this dreadful disease would be treated like pariahs in the society. A TB patient in a family was the cause of extreme concern for the entire family. People would avoid the proximity of such a patient.
A person from rural area suffering from TB would be scared of undergoing x-ray. He or she would think that his or her days are numbered. The people have overcome those age-old superstition and ignorance. Nowadays a person does not feel uneasy to undergo a number of medical tests required for proper diagnosis of the disease. TB is no more a fatal disease. A person does not require rich foods, complete rest (except in some serious conditions), hospitalization or go to sanatorium by the sea shore or on the hill top for curing TB. Taking drugs continuously in right dose for a certain period of time as advised by the physician may cure the disease.
Dr. Ali was born on 1st May in 1937 at Rupasdi village in Bancharampur upazila under Brahmanbaria district. His father, the late Khan Shaheeb Tazammal Ali, was a widely respected person in the area. Dr. Ali passed Matriculation in 1952 from Rupasdi Brindabon High School with first division and I.Sc. from Dhaka College in 1954. He obtained MBBS from Dhaka Medical College in 1961 and joined government service in the same year. He had DTCD from UK in 1965 and higher training in general medicine in 1966. He completed special training on TB management in 1976 and higher training on TB in 1980 from Japan. He received FCCP Degree in 1984 and FWAIM Fellowship in 2002 from the USA. He achieved FRCP from the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 2007 and Ph.D. in integrated medicine in 2010 from the USA.
Dr Ali joined Dhaka Medical College as Associate Professor of TB and Chest Diseases in 1966 and worked there up to 1980. In 1980, he joined the National Institute of Diseases of Chest and Hospital (NIDCH) and served there up to 1991 and acted as Director of the Institute several times. In 1991 he joined as Director Mycobacterial Disease Control (MBDC) and Project Director Further Development of TB and Leprosy Control Services and served in that capacity till his retirement in 1998. He was the first Bangladeshi to be appointed as member of the governing body of SAARC TB Centre in Nepal and later became the Chairman of the Institute.
In the preface of the book Dr. Ali wrote : It is really tough to choose profession. There are many reasons that influence one to choose his own profession. In my case one Dr. Shirish Chandra Das had a great influence. In my early life cholera broke out in my locality and took away many lives. I was very much shocked to witness the death. Dr. Shirish Chandra Das gave valuable service during that havoc and saved many lives. This inspired me very much and I used to cherish the idea of becoming a doctor in future to help the ailing people like him. My aspiration came true when I was admitted as an MBBS student in Dhaka Medical College and became a doctor in 1961.
I (the reviewer of the book) also feel proud of Dr. Alis achievement as I was also born at the same village where Dr. Ali was born and brought up. I also passed SSC Examination from the same school from where he did his matriculation. I can clearly visualize Dr. Shirish Chandra Das, the lone LMF doctor in the area, who would render medical care at his dispensary near Rupasdi Brindabon High School. Clad in white dhoti and shirt with three pockets (one chest pocket and two side pockets) riding his bicycle he would move from one house to another taking care of patients. The medicines prescribed by him would work wonder. During my childhood days my father would take me to him for fever, cold, dysentery and other problems. My mother, who is now more than eighty years old, was also his patient. Pranab, one of the sons of Dr. Das, was my classmate at the high school.
I came to know that Dr. Ali goes to his ancestral village once or twice in a month to render medical care to the villagers. I appreciate his humanitarian venture. Perhaps, he feels elated recalling the sweet memories of his childhood and adolescent days that he had spent at the village. Rupasdi, his birth place, has also changed a lot over the past few years. Improved communication, carpeted roads and electricity have changed the scenario of the village. A modern hospital (Mahbubur Rahman Memorial Hospital and Nursing Institute) founded at the village by my cousins (sons of my fathers elder brother) is an added advantage for the villagers. The people of Rupasdi and the surrounding villages are getting medical care from the hospital on a regular basis.
I would request Dr. Ali not to confine his writings to medical science alone. He can write a book (may be memoirs) in Bangla narrating his childhood and adolescent days at Rupasdi, his forefathers and relatives, his studies at home and abroad and his association with celebrities. Finally, I thank Dr. Ali cordially for authoring such an informative and valuable book. Readers, particularly students of medical science, will be greatly benefited from the book. A few spelling mistakes in the book could be avoided through careful proofreading. I think it can be done in the next edition of the book.
