As the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has brought the world almost to a standstill, social distancing measures and lockdowns have had an adverse effect on the society in terms of dealing with patients and physicians amid the crisis.
Until April 19 afternoon, 38 districts in Bangladesh were under complete lockdown and some 17 districts under partial lockdown.
International scientific and medical research journals have termed these lockdowns as non-pharmaceutical physical distancing interventions being enforced throughout the world with the aim to keep the transmission of the virus limited to each case infecting fewer than one person on an average.
Although such measures may be inadequate to stop the spread of the virus, the journals pressed hope that the approaches would help reduce pressure on health care facilities by slowing down the spread.
Lockdowns are not the only method being used by the government to fight the spread. As soon as the possibility of coronavirus cases rose in the country, the government introduced quarantine measures on February 1.
Later, the country introduced treatment in isolation and just after the mid of March, the country witnessed the lockdown approach.
However, the effective and proper implementation of these physical distancing interventions have been questioned by the media since its first day.
But, experts and health professional right activists said they have observed some adverse impact of the approaches as well.
Bangladesh Doctors Foundation (BDF) Chairman Shahed Rafi Pavel said the mass people of the country had failed to understand the approaches leading to panic over the issue.
The lack of awareness had created a negative view among many regarding areas put under lockdown and towards its residents. There have been many reports where families under lockdown or quarantine were humiliated by their neighbours.
Doctors, who are now providing emergency services to patients, were also not spared as many physicians were asked by their landlords to leave their rented flats in the capital and many other places in the country, irrespective of being infected or not.
“That is creating another problem; this has stigmatized the general people, barring them from disclosing their medical history or symptoms related to coronavirus infection.
“On the other hand, healthcare professionals, who are now the frontline warriors in the crisis, are being demoralized,” he added.
A recent research, published by Lancet Psychiatry, has found that many of the anticipated consequences of quarantine and associated social and physical distancing measures were themselves the key risk factors for mental health issues.
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Associate Prof Helal Uddin Ahmed said it is a common phenomena during any epidemic or outbreak situation that people are more likely to accept rumours than facts.
They remain worried about their career andjobs, fearing about being infected or how to escape the crisis moment and thus act unreasonably, he said.
Infectious disease expert Professor Dr Benazir Ahmed said that from the very beginning, health authorities playing hide-and-seek with information regarding the real scenario of the pandemic has created a mistrust among the mass people, fuelling panic.
“The rule of thumb in any outbreak is that the truth has to be conveyed to the people. It will help gain public trust and the people would not panic,” he added.
“If they disclosed each and every detail of the upcoming crisis from the beginning, the situation would have been otherwise,” Dr Benazir said.
However, Director General of Directorate General of Health Services Professor Dr Abul Kalam Azad and Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research Director Prof Dr Meerjady Sabrina Flora, the two spokespersons of health authorities for this crisis, on several occasions denied allegations of hiding information.
When contacted, Dr Flora said although health authorities have taken several measures to inform the people effectively about the approaches, they have observed that many have taken a different understanding of it.
She said locking down a building does not mean a person or his family is to be thrown out of the society.
Rather, it is a social approach to ensure everybody remains safe by staying inside the society, she added.
People need to understand it in a more sensitive manner and have to be tolerant to overcome the crisis, she said.
