Journal of General Practice

Md. Manirul Islam

Md. Manirul Islam
Training Physician Technical Training Unit (TTU) Human Resources Executive Director's Division.

Biography

Dr. Md. Manirul Islam, a Bangladeshi national joined ICDDR,B in January 2001 as Training Physician, Training and Education Unit. Dr. Islam had an MBBS degree in 1988 from Dhaka Medical College and Diploma in Public Health in 1992 securing first position from Dhaka University. He obtained his Masters in Medical Science in 1998 from the University of Western Australia with distinction and higher distinction in some subjects and the title of his thesis was Psychiatric morbidity among the adult population in an urban community of Bangladesh, the first of its kind in Bangladesh. He also obtained his MCPS in Psychiatry from Bangladesh Collage of Physicians and Surgeons and PhD from Nagasaki University with distinction or higher distinction in all but one subjects. He wrote another paper on A Qualitative Exploration of Drug Abuse Relapse Following Treatment. He joined Bangladesh Civil Service in 1991 and was responsible in managing rural health centre initially and 119 bed Dhaka Central Jail Hospital subsequently. His sincere effort had made those facilities transparent with low level of corruption. He then moved to Dhaka Medical College as Lecturer in 1993 where he was a faculty for various aspects of community medicine including behavioral sciences. There he also supervised mini research works including those on mental health and helped students in writing up reports. During this period he carried out 2 community-based health and water quality related surveys funded by Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC). In 1999, he joined Chittagong Medical College as Lecturer where he conducted another study funded by BMRC. He was also involved in curriculum development. During his 15 years in ICDDR, B, Dr. Islam was involved in planning, organizing and conducting various national and international training courses on infectious diseases including diarrheal diseases, malnutrition in disaster, quantitative and qualitative research methodology and supervised MPH students’ thesis on mental health and disease and was involved in research on mental disorders as well as infectious disease. He worked as a regular faculty as well. He supervised the MPH theses study on various areas of mental health of James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University titled, 1) Cultural Dimensions & Socio-demographic Correlates of Depression in Matlab, Bangladesh, 2007 2) Wading in the waters: Mental resilience in face of disasters in Bangladesh 3) Prevalence of Psychiatric Morbidity in an Old Home in Bangladesh: Patterns and Predictors and 4) Post-traumatic stress disorder and depression amongst survivors of a Bangladesh garment factory collapse in 2014 He planned and wrote protocol of and assisted in a country wide research project entitled, Community Based Multicentric Service Oriented Research on Mental Illness With Focus on Awareness, Prevalence, Care, Acceptance and Follow-up funded World Health Organisation (WHO) and worked as a Co investigator in a ICDDR,B research project titled, "Epidemiology of postnatal depression in rural Bangladesh". He was the principal investigator of an ongoing study titled Gender violence and mental disorders: a phenomenological approach. Dr. Islam has publications in both peer reviewed and local journals and been associated with various professional and social organization as well as journals’ editorial board. He reviews articles of various journals including PLOS ONE, Journal of Psychological Abnormalities in Children, Tropical Medicine and Health, Journal of Sleep Disorders & Therapy, Medical Practice and Reviews and Child & Adolescent Behavior. Some of publications: include:

•Islam MM, Hashizume M, Yamamoto T, Alam MF, Rabbani G A Qualitative Exploration of Drug Abuse Relapse Following Treatment in the Journal of Ethnographic & Qualitative Research, 2012, 7: page 36-51

•Islam MM, Ali M, Ferroni P, Underwood P, Alam MF Prevalence of psychiatric disorders in an urban community in Bangladesh. General Hospital Psychiatry. September-October 2003, 25(5): 353-357

•Islam MM, Ali M, Ferroni P, Underwood P, Alam MF, Firoz AHM Care seeking behavior of Mentally Ill: A Qualitative and Quantitative Approach, Bangladesh Journal of Psychiatry. June 2001; 15 (1): 13-28. •Islam MM, Ali M, Ferroni P, Underwood P, Alam MF Cultural issues in mental disorders: experience from an urban community in Bangladesh enriched with qualitative research. Bangladesh Journal of Psychiatry, Dec 1999; 13 (2): 55-65.