Fellow

Dr. Fahima Chowdhury

(Fellow, 2025)

Dr. Fahima Chowdhury

Senior Scientist, Infectious Disease Division, icddr,b, Dhaka                                                  

EDUCATION 

Degree                                                         Year                                   Institution         

MBBS                                                          1994                                   Mymensingh Medical College

MPH                                                             2009                                   North South University  

Ph.D.                                                             2023                                  Griffith University, Australia                

Professional Activities     

• Life member, Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA)
• General member of the Bangladesh Society of Microbiologists (BSM)
• Coordinator of the icddr,b “Planning and Implementation’’ committee  
• Member of the American Society of Microbiology
• Member of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (#41144)
• Mentor of the ‘Alumni Mentoring Program’ at Griffith University, Australia.
• Course coordinator in the ‘Bioethics Course’ at icddr,b in collaboration with MGH and NIH
• Site mentor of the “HBNU Fogarty Global Health Training Program”
• Member ‘National Cholera Control Plan (NCCP)’  
• Co-Chair of the ‘Institutional Review Board’ of the ideSHi foundation.
• Member, DSMB of the ideSHi
• Member of ‘Building Resilience of Health Systems in Asian LDCs to Climate Change’
• Epidemiology Working group member of GTFCC 
• Member of editorial board of ‘The National Bulletin of Public Health’
• Reviewer of the Researcher’s Grant Application for the Wellcome Funding Platform
• Member of the Scientific Program Committee of ASTMH

AWARDS                              

      2005 -       International Nutrition Foundation (USA)/Ellison Foundation Fellowship Award 

      2008 -       Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholar, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA         

      2010-11    International Alumni at ‘Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars '  

      2018-        Humanitarian Recognition Award for leading ‘OCV campaign in the Rohingya

                        Population’

      2019-        Awarded to attend US-Japan International Conference on Emerging Infectious  

                       Diseases in Vietnam

      2022-        Awarded to present ‘Winning Abstracts’ in ASCODD

      2023-     Awarded for Wellcome infectious disease funding call on oral cholera vaccine

    2025-     Awarded by Harvard Global Institute and Gates to discuss Future Cholera in UK

    2026-      Travel award through Gates Foundation to attend Diarrheal Disease Surveillance, in Goa, India

    2026-      Travel award for the “Shigella: from biology to prevention”, at the Institute of Pasteur in Paris, France

PUBLICATIONS: ~160 

As first, senior or corresponding author ~40 publication 

Chowdhury F, Ahmmed F, et al. Epidemiological and Clinical Features of Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli Diarrhea in an Urban Slum. Open Forum Infectious Diseases. 2025.

Akhtar M, Chowdhury F, Qadri F. Spike specific IgG3 and nucleocapsid IgG response in serum serve as distinguishing immunological markers between SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination. Front Immunol. 2025;(Senior Author)

Ahmed T, Chowdhury F, Ruvoën-Clouet N. COVID-19 and blood group-related antigens:  provide innate protection from symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection? Front Med. 2025 (Senior Author)

Rahman SIA, Chowdhury F. Genomic insights into a diarrheal outbreak in Bangladesh reveal novel ETEC lineages and expansion of CS23 colonization factor. 2025 Spectrum Microbiology (Senior Author).

Akter A, Chowdhury F. A comparative assessment of data completeness of the adverse events following immunization in DHIS2. J Health Popul Nutr. 2025. (Senior Author).

Akter A, Chowdhury F. Risk Factors for Death in Patients with Dengue Fever in Dhaka, Bangladesh: A Verbal Autopsy Study. Cureus. 2025. (Senior Author)

RESEARCH GRANT 

1.NIH/NICHD funded. 2019-2024. The effect of single-dose azithromycin in contacts of cholera patients; Role: PI

25. Global Task Force. Assessment of the DHIS2 Adverse Events Following Immunization tracker in Bangladesh. Role: PI

26. Wellcome Trust, Title: Case-area targeted interventions (CATIs) among household contacts defining cholera hotspot areas in Bangladesh: Role: PI

27. USAID. ‘Clinical and laboratory factors for the progression of severe Dengue among hospitalized patients. Role: Co-PI