Health Minister Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim has urged the international community to extend financial and technical assistance to Bangladesh to tackle its growing dengue and arsenic problems.

The minister made the appeal while addressing the 54th WHO conference in Geneva on 'Cure and prevention of mental disease' on Tuesday, said a message received in the city yesterday.

Selim said the government was implementing various programmes for providing modern treatment facilities to mental patients and going to enact Mental Health Act to protect their rights.

He told the conference that there are 1.3 crore mental patients in Bangladesh and the government has taken up various programmes, including construction of National Mental Institute, for expanding treatment facilities for the mental patients.

He expressed concern over outbreak of arsenic-linked diseases, dengue fever, malaria and kalaazar in the country.