It has been three years since WHO deployed the first humanitarians to provide immediate aid and relief to the Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, running from the Rakhine State, in Myanmar.
“I was one of the first humanitarians arriving in Cox’s Bazar, in early September 2017. It is difficult to describe the situation in words, as I saw thousands of people standing on both sides of the road asking for food, health care and shelter. In some places, they had built improvised shelters but they still didn’t have food or water nor proper sanitation facilities. On top of that, it was raining heavily”, recalls Dr Md Khadimul Mazhar, WHO Consultant for Outbreak investigation.
Dr Mazhar in the first year of the health emergency response, in Cox’s Bazar, working as a WHO Surveillance and Immunization Medical Officer (SIMO) - WHO Bangladesh/ Mehak Sethi
The World Health Organization (WHO) coordinates the international response to humanitarian health emergencies. In doing so, the organization contributes to alleviate human suffering, protect and respect the life, health and dignity of each individual.
In Cox’s Bazar, within weeks of scaling up the emergency response WHO rolled out its Early Warning Alert Response System (EWARS) to strengthen disease early warning, alert and response. The surveillance system is designed to work in difficult operating environments, with data being collected and submitted in real time by health staff working in health facilities.
“We established a disease surveillance system to prevent any major disease outbreak in the camps. We assessed and mapped all the existing health facilities and brought them under the surveillance system. I was also supporting our WASH team in conducting water quality surveillance”, tells Dr Mazhar.
These days, WHO’s epidemiology team is providing data to support operational decision making for the COVID-19 response in Cox’s Bazar. A robust surveillance system, Go.Data is instrumental to control the spread of COVID-19 and guide ongoing implementation of measures to contain the outbreak. To date, 3757 COVID-19 positive cases were identified in Cox’s Bazar with only 79 in the Rohingya camps.
The Rohingya refugee camps, in Cox’s Bazar, in 2018 - WHO Bangladesh/ Mehak Sethi
“I still remember the days when we had to walk in the mud across the hills by foot, people used to live just under a plastic shed or under the trees. Now things have changed. The camps are better organised, the roads have been paved and there are good drainage systems with sufficient WASH facilities”, says Dr Mazhar.
Dr Mazhar says he has found his passion while working for WHO. In fact, studying medicine had been his parents’ dream and as a young adult he lived up to their expectations. That was until the day he found himself providing humanitarian aid in the southern most district of his homeland.
Follow up visit to a recovered patient during a diphteria outbbreak in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh - WHO Bangladesh/ Mehak Sethi