Dhaka Bureau: Freedom fighter, one of the makers of Bangladesh drug policy and founder and trustee of Gonoshasthaya Kendra. Zafrullah Chowdhury is no more. He passed away while undergoing treatment at Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital in Dhanmondi on Tuesday night (Inna Lillahi, Rajiun). He was 81 years old. His death has cast a shadow of mourning in the country’s political arena and civil society.
Jahangir Alam Mintu, Press Adviser of Gonoshasthaya Kendra, told the media at 1:15 a.m. that Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury’s body will be taken to Markazul Al Islami in Mohammadpur and will be kept in Bardem Hospital’s freezer after bathing and other activities. Details about his funeral and burial will be announced on Wednesday.
Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury had been suffering from kidney complications for a long time. He was also suffering from senility for some days. He was admitted to the hospital last Wednesday. Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital’s chief kidney specialist and Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury’s chief physician, Professor Mamun Mostafi, officially announced the news of Zafrullah Chowdhury’s death at 11:35 p.m. on Tuesday.
Earlier on April 5, his physical condition became critical. He was then admitted to the hospital. As there was no improvement in his condition even after three days, a medical board was constituted to treat him on Sunday. The chief coordinator of the board is Professor Brigadier General (Retd.) Mamun Mostafi. Zafrullah Chowdhury was taken off life support on Monday morning as his condition deteriorated. At one stage, an infection was found in Zafrullah Chowdhury’s blood.
To improve his physical condition, the medical board met yesterday from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., as it does every day. Chief Coordinator Prof. Brigadier General (retd) Mamun Mostafi, Prof. ABM Abdullah, Prof. Kazi Deen Mohammad, Prof. Neurology, Prof. FM Siddiqui, Prof. Ali Ahsan, Prof. Abdul Wadud Chowdhury, Prof. Shafiqul Bari, and public health doctors were present in the meeting. Tuesday at 2:30, Dr. Jafrullah started kidney dialysis. Oxygen saturation also decreases toward the evening. Although he opened his eyes earlier, he has opened his eyes very little since yesterday. In other words, he became very dull.
Career life: Zafrullah Chowdhury was born on December 27, 1941, in Koypara village, Raujan Upazila, Chittagong. His father, Humayan Morshed Chowdhury, was a police officer. Mother Hashina Begum Chowdhury was a housewife. Zafrullah Chowdhury was the eldest of the 10 children of his parents. He completed his schooling at the Navkumar Institute, Bakshibazar, Dhaka, and got admission to Dhaka College. Passed intermediate from Dhaka College and joined Dhaka Medical College. At that time, he joined left-wing politics. He was elected General Secretary of the Dhaka Medical College Students’ Union. Zafrullah Chowdhury passed the MBBM exam in 1964 and moved to the UK. There, he trained in general surgery and vascular surgery.
Zafrullah Chowdhury played a special role in establishing the Bangladesh Field Hospital in Tripura, India, during the liberation war of 1971. He also played a major role in organizing the doctors stationed in the United Kingdom in favor of the liberation war and collecting medical equipment, including medicines, for the hospital. Women who had no previous training worked in the hospital with only a few days of training.
Jarullah Chowdhury used the experience of the Bangladesh Field Hospital in building a public health center in 1972. Gonoshattha Kendra proves that primary health care can be provided by trained health workers.
Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury is a vascular surgeon. He is primarily a public health thinker. The drug policy of 1982 made the country almost self-sufficient in medicine; Zafrullah Chowdhury was one of the architects of that policy. He is known to the outside world as a supporter and organizer of the alternative health movement.
Zafrullah Chowdhury has received national and international awards or honors in various phases of his life in recognition of his work. In 1977, the government gave him a freedom award. Ramon Magsaysay of the Philippines received the award in 1985. He was given the Right Livelihood Award from Sweden in 1992. Canada’s World Organization of Natural Medicine awarded him the Doctor of Humanitarian title in 2009. The International Public Health Heroes Award was given in 2010 in Berkeley, USA. Voice for Global Bangladeshis, an organization of expatriate Bangladeshis in the UK, gave Zafrullah Chowdhury the ‘NRB Liberation War Hero 1971’ award in 2022.
In the last years of Zafrullah Chowdhury’s life, he suffered from a complicated kidney disease. He wanted to change the law to make it easier for people to get a kidney for transplant. Besides, he built a 100-bed kidney dialysis unit in the Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital. He used to undergo dialysis in that unit. He made the unit to provide services to the common man at a low cost. He also wanted to build a cancer hospital.
