British-Bangladeshi doctor dies of Covid-19 after pleading for more PPEs

A British-Bangladeshi hospital consultant in London has died from the coronavirus infection weeks after pleading to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson for more personal protective equipment for frontline staff, according to a report published in The Guardian yesterday.

Abdul Mabud Chowdhury, a consultant urologist at Homerton hospital in Hackney in east London, died after spending 15 days in Queens hospital, the report says.

Chowdhury, 53, was born in Bangladesh and had no underlying health conditions.

Last month he wrote a Facebook message to Johnson detailing the urgent need for PPE for frontline staff and asking that testing of healthcare workers be fast-tracked, the report says.

"Dear and respectable prime minister Mr Boris Johnson, Please ensure urgently PPE for each and every NHS health worker," he wrote, adding that healthcare workers "are in direct contact with patients" and have a "human right like others to live in this world disease-free with our family and children".

Philip Glanville, the Labour mayor of Hackney, in a tweet hailed Chowdhury as a "hero" who died serving the borough.

"I hope his death wasn't as a result of continuing issues around testing & PPE, but it raises Qs. A sobering reminder of the lives being lost to keep us safe & the contribution BAME [Black, Asian and minority ethnic] staff make," he said in the tweet.

The report adds that the Muslim Doctors Association said it was "deeply saddened" by his death. In a Facebook post it said: "He leaves behind his wife and two children. Our thoughts and prayers are with them."