Rare feat for Bangladesh expert in WHO

Prof Mahmudur Rahman has been chosen as member of the World Health Organisation’s international experts review committee on poliovirus.He is also a member of such a committee set up to review the Middle East Coronavirus (MERS). That makes him the only one who is on two of the three WHO emergency committees formed under the International Health Regulations (IHR). The IHR came into force in 2007, after the 2002 SARS outbreak. The other similar committee was set up to monitor pandemic influenza in 2009. Being member of such committees is prestigious for public health experts because the WHO Chief depends on their advice to take critical decision on global public health issues specially during emergencies. Prof Rahman, the director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) and National Influenza Centre, has been taken into these committees as an “infectious diseases epidemiologist”. In an immediate reaction to bdnews24.com , he said : " I will make every effort to live up to the task . " According to WHO, the committee has been formed to review the ongoing issues related to the transmission and global spread of the polio virus.