Bangladesh will send a 30-member medical team, comprising 20 doctors and 10 health technicians, to earthquake-hit Haiti by tomorrow.

The decision came from a meeting of the health and family planning ministry held yesterday with its Minister AFM Ruhal Haque in the chair.

The minister directed the authorities concerned to take all necessary steps to send the team by Monday along with necessary medicines.

A devastating earthquake hit Haitian capital on Tuesday killing thousands of people and affecting more than 3 million.

Dhaka to send medicines to tsunami-hit Saarc states
BSS, Dhaka

Bangladesh has decided to send emergency medicines to Sri Lanka and the
Maldives, two worst tsunami-hit countries in the Saarc region. Health
Directorate has already stored medical relief procured from Essential Drug
Company Limited (EDCL) of the government and various private medicine companies
in the Prime Minister's Relief Fund (PMRF), official sources said here
yesterday. The PMRF will send those medicines soon to the disaster affected
states, who are two island nations of the South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC) that groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal,
Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The relief goods include water purification tablets,
anti-biotics to combat post-disaster diarrhoea, influenza and other
communicable diseases. Other medical items include oral and intra-venous saline
and disposable syringe. Health ministry sources said the medicines and the
medicare equipment worth Tk one crore have been sent to the PM Relief Fund. 

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Miscellaneous

TUESDAY, 07 SEPTEMBER 2010

AUTHOR / SOURCE : UNB, DHAKA

A 39-member Bangladesh medical team comprising doctors, nurses and pharmacists left for Karachi yesterday to help the victims of Pakistan’s worst floods in decades.
Earlier, the government decided to send relief and medical team as part of its US$ 2 million package. Briefing the reporters at the VIP Lounge of Shahjalal International Airport prior to the medical team’s departure, Foreign Secretary Mijarul Quayes said the government would send 54 tons of medicines, 500,000 water purification tablets, 2,000 hygienic kits, and other medical accessories. 
“Eleven tons of medicines have already been sent to Pakistan,” he said, adding that 10,000 blankets and 5,000 tents will also be sent for the flood victims. 
Pakistan High Commissioner in Dhaka Ashraf Qureshi was also present at the airport to see off the Bangladesh medical team. 
Talking to the media, High Commissioner Qureshi said: “We’re extremely grateful to Bangladesh government and its people for the generous support (for flood victims in Pakistan)… it’s like one brother is helping another brother.” 
He said many non-government organisations are also very active in Pakistan to help the flood victims and to rehabilitate them. “BRAC is very active in Pakistan right now…Bangladesh chapter of Muslim Aid is also there… it’s a tremendous solidarity of Bangladeshi people.” 
Recalling Bangladesh’s support when earthquake had hit Pakistan hard, High Commissioner Qureshi said Bangaldesh has been “very forthcoming” in the post-earthquake period too. 
The Bangladesh medical team led by medicine specialist Prof Abul Kalam Azad will stay in Pakistan for nearly four weeks, mainly in the southern part of the country, being stationed at Hyderabad.