International partners gathered in Dhaka, Bangladesh this month (7 – 9 February 2018) for our second RESPIRE meeting. Image RESPIRE group pictured at the Policy Dialogue event in Bangladesh The meeting was kindly organised by the Child Health Research Foundation (CHRF), a key partner of the RESPIRE initiative, and Dhaka Shishu (Children) Hospital in collaboration with University of Edinburgh. Raising awareness of RESPIRE As well as providing a place for our global partners to connect with each other, the trip was an important opportunity to raise awareness of RESPIRE locally. The three-day meeting kicked off with a ‘Meet the Press’ session for local journalists followed by a ‘Policy Dialogue’, where representatives from local government, charities and health services built a picture of respiratory health in Bangladesh. Respiratory disease burden in Bangladesh Speaking at the meeting, CHRF Executive Director, Professor Samir Saha, commented that respiratory diseases cause nearly 96,000 deaths in Bangladesh each year. Given the extent of the problem, RESPIRE co-director Professor Harry Campbell said that respiratory diseases do not get the attention, awareness and priority they deserve. If we can prevent some of these respiratory conditions, it would be a big contribution to improving health services in Bangladesh. Professor Harry CampbellCo-director, RESPIRE Building on discussions for next steps Image Members of RESPIRE at CHRF Bangladesh Engaging with local stakeholders is an important process in developing our understanding of the opportunities and challenges in enhancing respiratory health in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Over the next two days in Dhaka, RESPIRE partners built on this background as they refined plans for projects and next steps. Publication date 13 Feb, 2019
