Dr Tanbirul Islam, National Professional Officer, WHO Country Office, Bangladesh

28 May 2015
1 min read
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<article> <h1> <span>Dr Tanbirul Islam, National Professional Officer, WHO Country Office, Bangladesh</span> </h1> <ul> <li> <b>28 May 2015</b> </li> </ul> <div> <div> <div> <div> <div> <article id="post-538" class="module single-post-module post-538 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-people tag-bangladesh tag-endpolio tag-health-workers tag-impact tag-polio tag-vaccineportrait et-has-post-format-content et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"> <div> <div> <p><img id="portrait" src="http://gaviweb.org/vaccineswork/vaccine-portraits-icon.gif" alt="image" loading="lazy"><strong> </strong></p> <p>“I was supposed to be a surgeon. But while I was studying, I ran out of money and took on a temporary job strengthening routine immunization. One of my supervisors said to me, how many patients can you help with surgery? Just one at a time. But when you work in prevention, you will help hundreds of thousands of people. This stuck in my mind- I realised this is what I wanted, not recognition, but a broad contribution. That motivated me.</p> <p>“The fight against polio in Bangladesh was a historical event. Being involved in the eradication of a disease is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Once the world is certified as polio free, I will be the happiest man.”</p> <p><i>Photo: © WHO</i></p> </div> </div> <input type="hidden" id="post_id" value="538"> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <p> <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.gavi.org/dr-tanbirul-islam-national-professional-officer">Original article</a> </p><p>This article was originally published on <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork">VaccinesWork</a> </p><script>(function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start': new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src= 'https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f); })(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-M7H54VD');</script><noscript><iframe src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-M7H54VD" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript></article>

“I was supposed to be a surgeon. But while I was studying, I ran out of money and took on a temporary job strengthening routine immunization. One of my supervisors said to me, how many patients can you help with surgery? Just one at a time. But when you work in prevention, you will help hundreds of thousands of people. This stuck in my mind- I realised this is what I wanted, not recognition, but a broad contribution. That motivated me.

“The fight against polio in Bangladesh was a historical event. Being involved in the eradication of a disease is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Once the world is certified as polio free, I will be the happiest man.”

Photo: © WHO