Dhaka, Oct. 20 -- In 2010, deaths due to non-communicable diseases or NCDs accounted for 58.3 percent of the total fatalities in Bangladesh. In six years, according to the WHO, it rose to 66.9 percent in 2016.

One in four Bangladeshi adult aged 25 years or over are hypertensive, while one in 10 having had diabetes in 2016.

"The problem is rising by the day, there is no doubt. It's already an epidemic," a WHO NCD expert, Dr M Mostafa Zaman, told bdnews24.com on Sunday, on the sidelines of a conference in Dhaka.

The Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), icddr,b, and British Medical Journal (BMJ), who recently formed a tripartite initiative called 'Clinical Research Platform, Bangladesh', organised the two-day first-ever co...