Prof Dr Shahida Akhter (1961-2021)

Professor Dr Shahida Akhter, a well-known child health specialist, passed away prematurely from liver cancer at 59 years of age on May 1, 2021. She was soft-spoken, introverted, humble and beloved by many people.

The most appropriate portrait of Dr Shahida would be as follows—a person and physician endowed with high morals, a symbol of ethical medical practice, an ardent promoter of health rights and health equity, and an activist who fought against all kinds of malpractice in health, including indiscriminate use of expensive life-saving drugs, over-prescription of antibiotics to children, and the practice of unnecessary and profit-driven caesarian operations during child delivery. She was also an uncompromising activist who fought against the unholy alliance of the medical-health-pharmaceutical industrial complex and worked to establish the oft-ignored right to health of ordinary citizens. In a nutshell, Dr Shahida, in her 35 years of medical practice, was testament to the Hippocratic oath, which she conscientiously went above and beyond in following.

To students, junior colleagues, nurses and medical internees, she embodied Florence Nightingale and Mother Teresa, guiding them as a sister and a great teacher. To her patients, both children and mothers, she was a symbol of great hope and relief.

Professor Dr Shahida Akhter was born in 1961 in Boalmari in Faridpur district. Her family members knew her as Anju. She was a high achiever in all public examinations—from school and college to medical college and FCPS. She obtained her MBBS degree from Sir Salimullah Medical College in 1984, where she was a student of the fifth batch. She went on to successfully obtain an FCPS degree from the Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons. She also received higher professional training later.

She was a Professor in the Department of Paediatrics at Ibrahim Medical College and Hospital, and Head of the Neonatal Unit at BIRDEM General Hospital. She had also worked in different hospitals across the country. Notable among them are Sir Salimullah Medical College and Mitford Hospital, Dhaka Shishu Hospital, IPGMR (now Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University), Dr Quasem's Clinic and Hospital, Kushtia, and Dhaka University Medical Centre.

Professor Dr Shahida Akhter was one of the most respected paediatricians in Bangladesh, who worked tirelessly with newborns and infants for over three decades. She was one of the pioneers of the Newborn Screening Test in the country. Newborn screening is a part of genomic medicine that tests certain hereditary diseases right after the baby is born, especially ones that can be cured if treatment is started early. She also made exceptional contributions to the awareness-building programme in motivating lactating mothers towards feeding their children only breastmilk up to the age of six months.

Dr Shahida had an unparalleled thirst for knowledge in the complex and multifarious domains of acute respiratory tract infections (ARTI), asthma, breastfeeding practices, essential care for neonates, resuscitation at birth, advanced cardiac life support, helping babies breathe (HBB), pregnancy care, post-natal care, early childhood development (ECD), perinatal death audit (PDA), genetics and genomic medicine—not to mention the need for safe and clean drinkable water using scientifically recognised and low-cost arsenic mitigation systems such as the Sono-filter (innovated by Dr Abul Hussam, a Bangladeshi professor in the US). All of this contributed to making her a physician of a different mould—one who was endowed with multidisciplinary knowledge, including a deep understanding of the poverty and inequality faced by her patients in society. This enhanced her professional and humane capabilities and paved a precise path for her devotion towards research that aimed to improve newborn and child health.

The memory of Professor Dr Shahida Akhter as a paediatrician-neonatologist will live on, not only because of the unusually high level of expertise she possessed in her field, but for her ever-smiling face, welcoming behaviour, and her understanding of patients' social and economic conditions. She worked tirelessly to transform their pains into the magical smiles of newborn babies. And she did this irrespective of caste, creed, religion, class, and social standing of their parents. What truly made her unique is that in these children, she did not just see patients, but rather tiny humans with huge potentials and bright futures. She counted each patient as equal, labouring over them for hours, trying to understand their problems.

Besides medical services, Dr Shahida Akhter was a renowned researcher, conducting not just medical research but social research as well. She participated in many scientific conferences at home and abroad, including in the US, UK, Russia, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, India, UAE, South Africa, Egypt, Thailand and many other countries where she presented original scientific research. She has also been published in national and international journals.

Finally, she was a devoted social worker who stood by the side of the country's poor and helpless. She was the President-Elect of the Bangladesh Paediatric Association, Vice President of the Bangladesh Neonatal Forum, Life Member of the Bangladesh Medical Association, Member of the Executive Council of the Bangladesh Perinatal Society, and Member of the Executive Committee of the Paediatric Endocrine Society of Bangladesh. She was also involved with several philanthropic organisations that work to ensure the wellbeing of marginalised children. She was the Vice President of  the Abul Barkat Peace and Progress Foundation and Member of the Governing Board of the Human Development Research Centre, to cite a few.

In her personal life, she married Abul Barkat, a renowned economist/researcher, and Professor of Economics at the University of Dhaka. In his recently published book Padma Bridge with Own Finance: A Great Opportunity for National Unity, he wrote the following dedication—"To my wife Professor Dr Shahida Akhter, who is the source of inspiration in my quest for knowledge".

It is always painful when a loved one leaves forever. After Professor Dr Shahida Akhter's untimely demise, hundreds of patients, students, well-wishers and institutions expressed their deepest condolences. Her death is a loss for the entire nation. People will remember her with utmost reverence for her humanity, her kindness and compassion, the strong values she held ​​in all walks of life, and her indefatigable humanitarian-medical service.

Dr Matiur Rahman is Research Consultant at the Human Development Research Centre (HDRC), Dhaka. Shishir Reza is Associate Member at the Bangladesh Economic Association.