and a DVD of the programme reached me in Dhaka in April. In a scene, Noorjahan was telling the interviewer: ―When I ask him how he is, he always says he is getting better. But I know he is getting weaker and weaker, and more serious. I am very worried indeed‖. Then she wiped her tears with her saree. ●Lutfor Rahman, Marua Village, Jessore District At a monthly staff meeting held at our Jessore office on 3rd March 2006, Aklima Chowdhury, Patient Support Coordinator, reported that Lutfor Rahman of Marua village was complaining of breathing problem with occasional pain on the chest. She showed a copy of his X-ray report, in which it was written that dense opacity was seen in the lower zone of the left lung. Is he, too, suffering from lung cancer as Aziz? Fear ran through my body with shiver. Marua is one of highly arsenic-affected villages in Bangladesh with many patients. Aklima records 164 names for the village as patients for her to monitor their health condition periodically. Lutfor Rahman was admitted at the Yamagata Dhaka Friendship Hospital (YDFH) for examinations on 14th March for five days. It was Dr. Ekhlasur‘s opinion that Lutfor needed some treatment on the lung, though he did not identify the cause of the water in the lung. It might be due to just a kind of inflammation, or tuberculosis, or fibrosis, or cancer. **********
●Spring 2006 Late April there came sad news that Mafiqul passed away in the evening of 24th. On 29th I visited his home in Azagora to convey condolences accompanied by Sayed Sunny, our Programme Officer, who had called on him a number of times while he was in the Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Noorjahan said Mafiqul had shown no appetite for more than a week prior to his death. At about 4 p.m. on 24th he started spitting up blood and then his consciousness seemed faint. A village doctor was called in but he just watched the patient after murmuring: ―The case is beyond my ability‖. ―My husband breathed his last breath at 8:30 p.m. that evening‖ – having said so, Noorjahan burst into tears. I just hugged her. While driving through the village to return to Dhaka, our car was stopped many a time. People now knew why we were here and wanted to show their skin problems. Yes, here too, there seem to be many, many patients. We found one male patient with seemingly squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) on the right foot. He said his name was Dural and he was 40 years old. We proposed him to go to Dhaka immediately with us for examination and then possibly for treatment. Being seen off by his family and neighbours, he got in the car. As soon as the car moved, Dural started crying and wailing. Probably he was fearful of the disease having realized that his symptom was similar to Mafiqul‘s. When we arrived at the Yamagata Dhaka Friendship Hospital (YDFH) that evening, Dr. Ekhlasur had just finished his surgeries on Nozrul Islam and Shajahan of Samta village, Jessore district. Nozrul has uncountable warts, normally known as keratosis, on his palms and soles. During the regular check-up in Jessore earlier in April, Dr. Ekhlasur noticed very small black dots on some of those warts which he suspected as a sign of SCC. Because of this change in keratosis, Dr. Ekhlasur has fear that the number of cancer patients will increase alarmingly among arsenicosis patients in future. Nozrul was lying on the bed with his arms and legs wrapped with bandages. Shajahan, who had two SCCs on the face removed, was also lying still unconscious due to the effect of anesthesia. At YDFH, Nozrul‘s wife, Rizia, was also hospitalized. She had tumor at the root of her tongue and was going through treatment with medicines. Lutfor Rahman, who had been in the hospital again since 11th April, complained that the doctor had done nothing on him. Having heard his complaint, Dr. Ekhlasur told me that the hospital was feeding him nutritious food since he needed to
strengthen his body condition for operation. Lutfor underwent surgeries twice in May with his left lung removed finally. Dural had his SCC excised from the right foot on 2nd May. ―It was a v