Cholera vaccination for Rohingyas begins in Bhasan Char

Oral cholera vaccination campaign for the Rohingya refugees in Noakhali's Bhasan Char was launched today, said a press release.

About 30,000 Rohingyas will be vaccinated through this campaign.

Professor Md Nazmul Islam, director of Disease Control, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), and Dr Firdausi Qadri, acting senior director of Infectious Diseases Division at icddr,b, were present at the inauguration of the campaign.

Since December 2020, almost 32,000 Rohingya people have been relocated to Bhasan Char.

Photo: Courtesy

In 2021, a diarrhoeal disease broke out in Bhasan Char, affecting 1,500 people and killing four.

To prevent a similar outbreak from happening, the DGHS, icddr,b, WHO, and other development partners have taken the initiative to inoculate the Rohingyas there through oral cholera vaccination (OCV) programme.

Dr Firdausi Qadri stated that around five million doses of oral cholera vaccines were administered to the Rohingya population since they fled persecution in Myanmar and arrived in Cox's Bazar in 2017.

Dr Masum Iftekhar, civil surgeon of Noakhali, and representatives from the DGHS, development partners and icddr,b were also present at the event among others.