Matlab (Bangladesh)

rdf:langString Matlab (Bangladesh)

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rdf:langString Bangladesh

rdf:langString Location in Bangladesh

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rdf:langString Matlab was an upazila of the Chandpur District of the Chittagong Division, Bangladesh. In 2000, the administrative area was subdivided into Matlab Dakshin Upazila and Matlab Uttar Upazila. The Matlab Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (HDSS) was established in 1963 by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, (icddr,b, former Pakistan SEATO Cholera Research Laboratory). Matlab contains the largest population under continuous PSCRL surveillance in the world. The area is representative of many rural and riverine deltas in Bangladesh, and is one of the richest and longest-running longitudinal data sources within the developing world. In 1960, a group of American and Bangladeshi scientists journeyed across a cholera-prone sub-district of Bangladesh on a barge-turned-floating cholera hospital. This particular barge was used around Matlab to treat patients with cholera otherwise inaccessible due to their remote location. This is the story of the Matlab HDSS which would develop into the Matlab Health Research Centre - a full-fledged health care facility and one of the most important research sites in the world. In 1966, a Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) was established in Matlab to record data regarding birth, death and migration. Initially the main purpose was to conduct cholera vaccine trials and to track the trends of public health problems of rural Bangladesh. One of the most important roles Matlab played in the field of public health was through the development of an oral rehydration solution (ORS). The ORS, at the time created from salt, molasses and water, was first trialed in 1968 at Matlab. It is now considered one of the most important medical advances of the 20th century and estimated to have saved around 50 million lives globally.