key: cord-284722-xnuta75p authors: Kibria, Md. Golam; Islam, Taslima; Miah, Md. Shamim; Ahmed, Shakil; Hossain, Ahmed title: Barriers to healthcare services for persons with disabilities in Bangladesh amid the COVID-19 pandemic date: 2020-07-03 journal: nan DOI: 10.1016/j.puhip.2020.100027 sha: doc_id: 284722 cord_uid: xnuta75p nan Disability is a major public health issue in Bangladesh where about 9.1% of the total population lives with some form of disabilities. 1 in villages and small towns hardly avail follow-up and emergency services amid the COVID-19 pandemic as they cannot visit tertiary and specialized hospitals in big towns and cities due to the shutdown. This non-availability of emergency services heightens their risk of complications and even death. Many government and private hospitals turned away patients with fever and flu amid the pandemic, suspecting them COVID-19 positive. 5 On the same ground, those PWDs having fever and flu may be rejected by the hospitals regardless they really suffer from common illnesses like fever, flu and diarrhea or chronic diseases such as stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and diabetes. This may lead them to experience serious complications of comorbid conditions. Furthermore, many PWDs cannot pass a single day without the assistance of a caregiver. This assistance involves close physical contact. Some caregivers who are not family members of PWDs may leave their job amid the pandemic for fear of coronavirus infection. 6 Caregivers are usually trained on therapeutic exercises, activities of daily living and use of assistive devices. They cannot perform therapeutic exercises, activities of daily living and use assistive devices in the absence of caregivers, which are an important part of their regular healthcare. As in Bangladesh, disability rate is high in other LMICs, and PWDs from those countries have scarce access to emergency healthcare services amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Evidence shows that medical treatment, rehabilitation and support services have been disruptive to PWDs in many other countries, including India, Nepal, Iran and Mali during the pandemic 7 , 8 , 9,10 Considering the emergency healthcare needs of this group, effective measures should be adopted to enhance service accessibility in the time of this virus pandemic. Emergency transport services with special stickers should be made available at all times for PWDs to receive emergency services from tertiary and specialized hospitals in big towns and cities. In every hospital, there should be a disability unit with doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech & language therapists, prosthetists, orthotists and other related associates. Government emergency telemedicine programmes should also have a special line for dealing with the health problems of PWDs. Moreover, there should be a substitute caregiver from the PWD's family, who will be trained on caregiving in the absence of professional caregivers. Report of the Household Income and Expenditure Survey Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Vienna: United Nations Public transport shutdown extended till May 30. UNB News The organization and financing of health services for persons with disabilities Patients suffer as hospitals limit services. The New Age Disability in the time of COVID-19 Persons with disabilities grapple with more challenges Pain and Plight of People with Disabilities during COVID-19 Pandemic: Reflections from Nepal COVID-19 and disabled people: perspectives from Iran How have people with disabilities been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic? Funding: The authors did not receive any fund for this paper. Competing Interest: The authors declared that they did not have any competing interest.Ethical approval: Not required. Ethical approval was not taken because the article was written on secondary data.