e_Paper, Wednesday, September 6, 2017

10
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2017
DT
News
New Rohingya refugees face
extortion looking for shelter
• Abdul Aziz, Cox’s Bazar
CRISIS
Moyamoya: A disease well fought in Bangladesh
• Nawaz Farhin
HEALTH
In Japanese, the word “Moyamoya”
means “puff of smoke,” but the disease
it represents is a rare and progressive
cerebrovascular disorder
caused by blocked arteries at the
base of the cranium. The meaning
also describes the look of the tangle
of tiny vessels formed to compensate
for the blockage.
Although Moyamoya is not very
well known in Bangladesh, there
are quite a number of patients who
have been treated successfully at
the National Institute of Neurosciences
and Hospital (NINSH) in
Dhaka’s Agargaon.
Until now, 30 patients have undergone
bypass surgeries in NINSH
while only one of them has died.
The first known Moyamoya
patient in Bangladesh was diagnosed
at Bangabandhu Sheikh
Mujib Medical University hospital
in 2012, according to a case report
published in the Journal of Bangladesh
College of Physicians and
Surgeons that year.
However, NINSH had its first patient
in 2014 when seven-year-old
Mohona Aktar from Kushtia was
brought in.
In the initial stage, the child was
frequently suffering from sudden
A group of Rohingya refugees living
in Bangladesh are extorting the
newly arrived refugees by providing
them accommodation in seven
new makeshift camps in different
areas of Cox’s Bazar and Bandarban
that they have set up with the
locals’ help.
These vested quarters, along
with the so-called landowners,
have been charging heavy sums for
building small shanties occupying
the forest lands.
The new shelters have been
built in Balukhali Dhalar Mukh,
Taznirmarchhara, Shafiullah Kata
and Hakimpara areas in Ukhiya,
Hoai Kang and Noikhyang area in
Teknaf, and in Naikhongchhari.
More than 100,000 newly arrived
Rohingya, who fled to Bangladesh
following the latest military
crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine
state, have already occupied 450
acres of forest lands in a bid to set
up residence.
Thousands of refugees are
thronging towards these new shelters
as the existing camps are already
overcrowded.
Farid Miah, 45, one of the refugees
who came from Myanmar’s
Maungdaw province, told the Dhaka
Tribune that he was charged Tk2,000
to get the permission to build a small
hut with bamboo and polythene.
Ali Kabir, divisional forest officer
at Cox’s Bazar south zone,
told the Dhaka Tribune that some
muscular weakness, one of the
first symptoms of the disease. She
used to feel better after resting for
a while, her family said. But two
weeks later, she suffered temporary
paralysis on one side of her body.
Her family had taken her to several
state-run hospitals in Kushtia,
one of which later referred her to
NINSH where she underwent brain
surgery twice in the next two years.
The second patient with
Moyamoya disease who came in at
NINSH one year later was another
child named Jannatul Ferdousi Nupur,
9, from Bogra.
Her father Jahidur Rahman told
the Dhaka Tribune: “Three years
ago, one day, Nupur had fallen
on the school grounds after having
a seizure and couldn’t speak.
Since then, this started happening
to her from time to time. She was
also having constant severe headaches.”
Nupur was also treated initially
at different local hospitals, doctors
at one of which had told her parents
about Moyamoya’s possibility.
They also referred them to NINSH.
Jahidur said: “Doctors had said
Nupur will have to undergo brain
surgery. In the last two years, doctors
operated on her head twice.
Nupur is better now and has also
resumed school.”
Dr Sudipto Kumar Mukherjee,
local syndicates have been building
slums for the Rohingya in the
name of shelters.
“We have been conducting drives
to evict such newly-built slums. The
existing camps have already acquired
more than 600 acres of forest
land. So, the latest occupation has
become a matter of serious concern
for the administration,” the forest
department official said.
the assistant professor at NINSH’s
Department of Pediatric Neurosurgery,
told the Dhaka Tribune:
“In Nupur’s case, the disease was
hereditary. We found out later that
her mother had Moyamoya too.
The symptoms and how
The rare idiopathic vaso-occlusive
disease is characterised by progressive
irreversible occlusion, or
blockage, of main blood vessels
to the brain as they enter into the
skull.
Apart from muscular weakness,
in children the first symptoms
include stroke, or recurrent transient
ischemic attacks (commonly
referred to as “mini-strokes”), or
paralysis affecting one side of the
body, or seizures, according to National
Institute of Neurological Disorders
and Stroke (NINDS) at Maryland
in the US.
It says adults can also experience
these symptoms, but more
often suffer a hemorrhagic stroke
due to bleeding into the brain from
the abnormal vessels.
NINDS says about one in 10 individuals
with Moyamoya has a close
relative who is also affected; in
these cases researchers think that
this disease is the result of inherited
genetic abnormalities.
In the rural areas in Bangladesh,
villagers try to treat such problems
Ukhiya Upazila Nirbahi Officer
Md Mainuddin said no more camps
or shelters would be allowed to be
set up in the upazila.
“The new Rohingya will be rehabilitated
to the existing camps in Kutupalong
and Balukhali,” he added.
Some 123,000 Rohingya have
fled to Bangladesh since the latest
eruption of violence in Myanmar’s
Rakhine state in late August. •
Mahmud Hossain Opu
through superstitions. Even local
doctors, who have not heard of
Moyamoya disease, feel confused
under the circumstances, experts
said.
Tackling Moyamoya
Three years ago, the Dhaka hospital
was unable to treat Moyamoya patients
let alone conduct surgeries.
The hospital then sent Dr Sudipto
Kumar Mukherjee to South Korea
for higher studies on the disease
with the sole aim to treat
Moyamoya patients here.
The government, in an admirable
initiative, is also bearing all
costs of the surgeries that are happening
at NINSH every now and
then. People from Bangladesh used
to go to India and spend at least
Tk30 lakhs on such operations and
treatment three years ago.
According to NINDS of the US,
there are several types of surgeries
that can restore blood flow to the
brain by opening narrowed vessels
or by bypassing blocked arteries.
Without the surgery, most
Moyamoya patients will experience
mental decline and multiple
strokes because of the progressive
narrowing of arteries. Without
treatment, this disease can be
fatal as the result of intracerebral
haemorrhage (bleeding within the
brain). •
Rohingya
crisis: Yunus
wants UNSC
intervention
• Tribune Desk
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad
Yunus has urged the United Nations
Security Council (UNSC) to
intervene to end the crisis in Myanmar’s
Rakhine State.
The Grameen Bank founder and
social entrepreneur sent an open
letter to the UNSC president and its
members, warning that the situation
for the Rohingya was “deteriorating
very fast”.
According to a press release issued
by the Yunus Centre in Dhaka
and reported by UNB on Tuesday,
Dr Yunus called for the immediate
intervention of the security council
to solve the crisis.
“The human tragedy and crimes
against humanity have taken a
dangerous turn in the Arakan region
of Myanmar. I call on UNSC to
intervene immediately by using all
available means,” Dr Yunus wrote.
“I request you to take immediate
action for cessation of indiscriminate
military attacks on innocent civilians
that is forcing them to leave
their homes and flee the country to
turn into stateless people.”
Dr Yunus said complete villages
had been burned, women raped,
many civilians arbitrarily arrested
and children killed in the military
crackdown which has followed Rohingya
attacks on police and army
bases in Rakhine on August 25.
“Unless constructive efforts to
build a lasting peace is taken, the
situation will get worse, which
in turn may pose serious security
threat to the neighbouring countries,”
Dr Yunus wrote.
He called for a “bold change in
approach” from the UN and the
international community towards
the Myanmar government of fellow
Nobel laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi.
“The government of Myanmar
needs to be told that international
support and finance was conditional
on a major change in policy
towards the Rohingya,” Dr Yunus
wrote in his letter.
“The world is waiting to see
that the UNSC has played its role
in bringing an end to a humanitarian
crisis and building peace in the
region.” •