LOCAL CARE, INTERNATIONAL REACH
icddr,b is a unique global leader—integrating scientific research and comprehensive care to improve the health of billions of people living in poverty across the globe and in its host country of Bangladesh.
For over 50 years, icddr,b has worked to meet the urgent needs of patients in Dhaka, particularly young children, suffering from enteric diseases. icddr,b’s hospital has grown into the world’s largest diarrheal hospital treating more than 200,000 patients a year, almost all of whom recover within 36 hours.
icddr,b also conducts extensive clinical research with global reach. As many other factors affect the risk of diarrheal diseases or recovery from them—including nutritional status, income, education of mothers, access to clean water, sanitation habits and efficacy of vaccines—icddr,b has expanded into new areas of public health.
INTEGRATED APPROACH FOR SCALABLE SOLUTIONS
While developing countries are not the first place people look to find a public health revolution, icddr,b has become known for generating practical, low-cost and often lifesaving solutions that improve health outcomes of individuals living in poverty. Innovations developed by icddr,b—such as Oral Rehydration Solution, zinc for diarrhea treatment and tetanus vaccines for newborns—have saved and continue to save millions of lives.
icddr,b’s institutional partnerships across the world allow its public health innovations to be brought to scale and provide public health practitioners with skills to work effectively to improve health equity.
The work of icddr,b has had a profound impact on health policy and practice both locally and globally—and continues to do so today.
