Life Sketch of Prof.(Dr.) Tofayel Ahmed
Prof. (Dr.) Md. Sirajul lslam,
MBBS, FCPS (Paed), PhD
Prof. Tofayel Ahmed was born on 1st January, 1929 at Vikrampur, Vill-Kazirpagla, P.S. Lauhajang in the district of Munshiganj. He received his graduate education in the Presidency College, Kolkata Medical College and Dhaka Medical College. During his student life Dr. Ahmed took active part in the language movement in 1951 and 1952and was recommended for rustication from Dhaka Medical College by the then East Pakistan Health Administration. Dr. Ahmed was the associate editor of the first Dhaka Medical College Magazine. He got his M.B.B.S.in 1953 from Dhaka University. He studied for postgraduate qualification in the U.S.A. and England from 1959-1965. He was appointed Associate Professor of Child Health in the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center, Karachi, Pakistan from 1967-71. During the liberation war, Dr. Tofayel Ahmed organized free medical clinic for stranded Bangal,is in Pakistan and these humanitarian activities were appreciated and appeared as an article in the Time Magazine in May, 1973.
Dr. Ahmed represented Bangladesh at the XIV international Congress of Pediatrics at Buones Aires, Argentina and presented the credentials for admitting Bangladesh in the international forum of pediatrics in September, 1974.DnAhmed became the first editor of Bangladesh Pediatrics (Bangladesh Journal of Child Health), the official organ of the Bangladesh Pediatrics in 1975.
ln 1975 Dr. Ahmed was honored with F.C.C.P of U.S.A and in 1 975 became the first and only Bangladeshi Fellow of international College of Pediatrics for outstanding contributions in the field of children's diseases. ln 1977 Dr. Ahmed was given the 'fellowship of the Royal Society' of the Tropical Medicine, London and was invited to preside over the scientific session of Second Asian Pediatrics Congress at Jakarta. Prof. Ahmed was given the highest honor in the field of child health from the United States (F.A.A.P) in 1981.
As the founder secretary of the Management Board of Dhaka Shishu Hospital, Prof. Tofayel Ahmed organized the largest children hospital of the country at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar and became the Professor and Head of the Department of Rural and Community Pediatrics of the Hospital. He was appointed the National Co-coordinator for
Under-S Clinics by the Government, He became member of the National Council for Children Affairs and organized various rural child health projects all over the country. Prof. Tofayel Ahmed was the member of the Advisory Board of Asian Pediatric Society and a Senator of the international College of Pediatrics. Dr. Tofayel Ahmed is the Founder President of the Palli Shishu (Rural Child) Foundation of Bangladesh. He was the Guest Lecturer of Pediatrics at the lnstitute of Post Graduate Medicine and Research (l. P.G.M.R) and was also the honorary consultant of pediatric of Holy Family Red Crescent Hospital. Prof. Tofayel Ahmed served as Medical Director of the Pfizer Bangladesh Ltd. (Now Renata Limited) for a long time. Prof. Ahmed was appointed a member of the Board of Governors of the institute of Nutrition and Food Science, Dhaka University and also a member of the Academic Council of NIPSOM. He was nominated by the Government in the Advisory Board of Executive Program for the immunization in Bangladesh. Prof. Ahmed established the Bangladesh institute of Child Health at Dhaka Shishu Hospital in 1983 and was the first Chairman of the Academic Council of Bangladesh institute of Child Health.
Prof. Tofayel Ahmed published to his credit 28 papers in the national and international medical journals. He was the author of two books written on rural child. "Palli Shishu" in Bangla in 1979 and the first English pediatric book in Bangladesh, "Rural Pediatrics in Developing Countries" for medical professionals in 1982.Prof.Tofayel Ahmed was appointed by the Honorable President of the Country to be a member of the Supreme Council for the Children and Mothers in June, '1984. Prof. Tofayel Ahmed was elected the Vice-President of international College of Pediatrics in 1987.He was awarded the Atish Dipankar Gold Medal for his outstanding contributions in the field of Pediatrics. Prof. Tofayel Ahmed breathed his last on 12.03.1997.