key: cord-0958792-a7t3epu4 authors: Mehedi, Nafiul; Hossainv, Md Ismail title: Patients with stigmatized illnesses during the COVID-19 health hazard: An underappreciated issue date: 2021-11-29 journal: Asian J Psychiatr DOI: 10.1016/j.ajp.2021.102951 sha: d457e3b570c7ad0843142686bec17da0f5f64c7e doc_id: 958792 cord_uid: a7t3epu4 nan The COVID-19 pandemic was induced by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus, which was first exposed in China and then expanded to other nations. The WHO classified it as a pandemic due to the nature of its transmission and intensity. People's physical and mental health is being compromised as a result of the effects of the global health emergency. Besides, in the midst of this terrible pandemic, stress and traumatic events are getting a lot of attention (Hossain et al., 2021) . The pandemic is having a significant impact on individuals with diverse ailments, particularly those with stigmatized illnesses. STDs such as AIDS, gonorrhea, genital herpes, syphilis, and mental disorders are classified as stigmatized illnesses that jeopardize people's lives. On the one hand, because of their sickness, they feel alienated; on the other hand, they receive less social support and medical care than other patients (Sartorius, 2007) . Nevertheless, the fatal pandemic imposed a double burden on people suffering from stigmatized illnesses like HIV. This is especially critical since we know that throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a decline in prevention and accessibility to HIV testing facilities (WHO, 2021). Even though the exact worldwide incidence of mental health issues is unknown, it is believed that approximately 1 billion individuals suffer from a mental or substance abuse disorder (Ritchie, 2018) . Similarly, STDs, such as HIV, remain a major global public health problem. It was predicted that 38 million people would be infected with HIV in 2019 (UNAIDS, 2021) . However, the present COVID-19 crisis has made HIV and psychiatric patients more vulnerable since they have a higher cognitive burden due to trauma and social alienation J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f (Waterfield et al., 2021) . Those victims are also concerned about being exposed to their HIV status while requiring their medication amid the quarantine and lockdown (Sun et al., 2020) . It is apparent that individuals suffering from stigmatized illnesses endure a double bind during the coronavirus outbreak. Moreover, serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and chronic depression are prolonged illnesses that generally need pharmaceutical management to avoid relapse and re-hospitalization. However, during the COVID-19 upheaval, numerous medical processes were curtailed, posing a global issue of optimizing the availability of hospital facilities (Kahl & Correll, 2020) . The lockdown, quarantine, restricted connection with peers and close ones, and decreased medical services have added to the pre-existing precarious condition, functioning as a doubleedged sword for those sufferers. Hence, immediate intervention is required to minimize the susceptibility of those patients. The new novel coronavirus hazard points to our inadequacies in healthcare systems as well as our preparation to confront the pandemic. It is abundantly obvious that the worldwide population was susceptible during the pandemic, which also emphasizes that we must transcend our global liability to counteract the pandemic's fatality (Tandon, 2021) . We recommend that healthcare professionals plan particular measures for treating those individuals. Those who require periodic checkups and medications should be approached with discretion. Governmental organizations (GOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) should launch programs to provide more assistance (medical, financial, and psychosocial) to these underserved vulnerable groups. We also believe that family members ought to be more supportive in this regard; thus, counseling and awareness-raising will be favorable in this regard. Since the COVID-19 vaccines approved by regulatory authorities substantially reduce the threat of severe infection and fatality and are anticipated to be acceptable for most people, including HIV-positive people (UNAIDS, 2021), they should be vaccinated as promptly as possible. (2021 J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f Psychosocial stress and trauma during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from Bangladesh Global mental health: five key insights which emerge from the data Management of patients with severe mental illness during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic Stigmatized illnesses and health care Challenges to HIV care and psychological health during the COVID-19 pandemic among people living with HIV in China The bitter lessons of COVID-19: acknowledging and working through many points of tension Global HIV & AIDS statistics -Fact sheet None. The author(s) received no financial support for the paper. None. The author(s) received no financial support for the paper. The author(s) declares that they have no competing interests The author(s) declares that they have no competing interests J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f