COVID-19 Hospital Appeal

February 1^st 2021

Dear Friends of icddr,b,

As COVID-19 advances upon Bangladesh, many of you have reached out to me to understand how the pandemic may affect our hospitals, what we will be doing to respond to the situation, and how you can help.

As the largest diarrhoeal disease treatment facility in the world, we are providing treatment free-of-charge to over 200,000 patients annually. Prior to the COVID-19 epidemic, our life-saving services prevented an estimated 80,000 deaths per year, of which 60% were children. As the epidemic evolves, we anticipate an increased risk of morbidity and mortality amongst our vulnerable populations, not only due to COVID, but also due to the ”usual” non-COVID causes of morbidity and mortality, such as non-COVID respiratory infections and diarrhea, since the understandable diversion of attention and resources to COVID-19 may leave other diseases less well attended to.

Every year, it costs USD 5 million to run our hospitals under normal conditions, with funds largely derived from our own resources. The impact of COVID-19 is such that our income from donors and other sources is declining or being reprogrammed towards our activities to support the government’s efforts to respond to COVID-19. Thus at this time, we are struggling to sustain free life-saving services for our patients.

In order to prepare for the anticipated increased influx of vulnerable patients, we urgently need to:

• enhance the capacity of our emergency and short-stay wards;
• extend our intensive care unit for critically ill patients with severe pneumonia and respiratory infections;
• increase our treatment and rehabilitation services for children with severe pneumonia and respiratory infections;
• ensure adequate number of cholera cots and essential supplies such as intravenous fluid, oral rehydration solution, zinc supplements, rice saline, antibiotics, and PPEs for our health workers;
• bring in additional doctors, nurses and health workers to meet the critical needs of our patients;
• extend our capacity to test, diagnose and manage patients who will inevitably present with COVID-19 symptoms; and
• expand our contact tracing operations to prevent community transmission.

You can help our hospitals during the evolving epidemic crisis. At a time when the entire world is affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and international resources are channeled to global efforts to fight this pandemic, we must turn to our local community for support. We anticipate that our current annual hospital budget will increase substantially. Your support will help us to sustain our life-saving services to our vulnerable patient population.

Tax rebate

• Tax rebate applicable for Bangladeshi citizens.
• Tax rebate applicable for businesses.

For any queries, please email: donate@icddrb.org

Please tell your friends, your business contacts, your relatives. Direct them to our website. No gift is too small, no gift is too large. While we brace for the impact of COVID-19, I would like to thank you for your support. It is our honour to serve the people of Bangladesh during this unparalleled time of need. Together, we will weather the storm.

Wishing you all good health,

Dr. Tahmeed Ahmed
Executive Director