Microsoft Word - 5 Editorial Vol 9 Issue 3 , 2018


Bangladesh Journal of Bioethics, 9; 3: 2018 

 

Bangladesh Journal of Bioethics  

Vol 9 issue 3 2018 

 

 

Editorial 

Welcome to all readers of the BJB Vol 9 issue 3, 2018! The BJB team together with authors, 

reviewers and well- wishers have contributed their all-out support to bring out this issue despite 

many challenges. This issue spans several topics of Bioethics beginning from complementary 

feeding patterns, ethical beliefs and vaccine, the regulatory documents related to pharmaceutical 

promotion in Bangladesh and Intimate Partner Violence. All these topics are very important for 

Bangladesh as well other countries. 

Fatema Johora1 and Md Sayedur Rahman in the paper titled “Pharmaceutical Promotion in 

Bangladesh: Assessing the strength of Regulatory Documents” observed that pharmaceutical 

promotion is a negative force for prescribing. The authors found that there were few regulatory 

initiatives to overcome this unwanted influence. Their research was conducted to review the 

regulatory documents related to pharmaceutical promotion in Bangladesh including Code of 

Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (CPMP), and to compare CPMP with different global 

guidelines. Though the guidelines showed efforts to regulate promotion, enforcement of these 

guidelines varied. The authors recommended the need for clear, well- defined ethical and legal 

prohibitions, and punishment for violations and an setting up of an agency with defined authority 

as crucial. 

The paper by Abu Sadat Mohammad Nurunnabi, Miliva Mozaffor, Mohammad Akram Hossai and 

Sadia Akther Sony ,titled, “Mass Vaccination Programme: Public Health Success And Ethical 

Issues – Bangladesh Perspective” looks  the ethical issues involved in mass vaccination 

programme and  challenges in public health programmes in   Bangladesh. This is because ethical 

issues like informed consent, benefits vs. risks, and disparities in access to vaccination are closely 

related to vaccination programmes. The authors’ concluded that related ethical issues be closely 

reviewd when starting any mass vaccination programme. 

In the paper titled “Intimate Partner Violence in Bangladesh: A Scoping Review” by Jhantu Bakchi 

, Satyajit Kundu, Subarna Ghosh, and Sumaiya Akter an attempt has been made to study the 

different literatures related to Intimate Partner Violence in Bangladesh. The authors found that the 

main risk factors of IPV in Bangladesh were women being younger, from low socioeconomic 

reputation, from low academic attainment and low education of husband, child marriage, and other 

issues arising from the key role of women’s empowerment. The authors’ concluded that with 

increasing empowerment of women could be crucial for developing interventions to reduce IPV 

and its consequences. 

 



Bangladesh Journal of Bioethics, 9; 3: 2018 

 

In the paper titled “Levels and Determinants of Complementary Feeding Pattern Exclusive of 

Minimum Meal Frequency and Dietary Diversity among Children of 6 to 23 Months in 

Bangladesh” the authors Naznin Pervin, Darryl Macer and Shamima P. Lasker estimate the level 

of complementary feeding pattern (CFP) among children between 6 to 23 months to identify the 

determinants in individual, household and community level in Bangladesh. The authors found that 

more than 95% of the children experienced either no (2.9%) or inadequate (92.7%) CFP level. 

Disaggregated data revealed that CFP was   lower among children of the youngest age group, 

uneducated parents, unemployed/laborer fathers, socio-economically poor families, food insecure 

families and rural areas. Limited exposure to mass media revealed meaningful associations with 

CFP. The authors observed that is ethical to improve the overall situation of CFP in Bangladesh 

by the government and other concerned stakeholders 

 

Wishing all a safe and healthy time and looking forward to your continued contributions and 

support. 

 

Warm Regards 

Professor Dr. Tahera Ahmed 

Editor