Bangladesh is at special risk from infectious disease outbreaks for several reasons, most obvious of which is the density of its population. Within its fifty-seven thousand square miles of territory it contains almost 150 million people, making it the most densely populated country in the world (apart from tiny city-states such as Singapore and Malta). Its generally low elevation (barely thirty feet above sea level in most areas) and its regular cycles of flooding (because of monsoonal rains and high rivers) exacerbate the problem of waterborne diseases such as cholera and bacterial diarrhea,
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