At least 76% of the people affected by leprosy in Bangladesh are going through a severe financial crisis amid the Covid-19 pandemic, a study has found.
The study, titled “An assessment of Covid-19 impact on persons affected by leprosy in Bangladesh,” was conducted by The Leprosy Mission International Bangladesh (TLMIB), with funding by Norwegian Agency for Exchange Cooperation (Norec).
The findings were disclosed during a workshop titled “Leprosy Research Dissemination,” held at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) in Dhaka on Sunday.
The event was jointly organized by National Leprosy Program (NLP) and TLMIB.
DGHS Director (Micro Bacterial Disease Control) Prof Md Shamiul Islam presided over the meeting.
MBDC Deputy Director and Manager of National Leprosy Program Dr Md Enamul Haque was the chief guest at the program.
A team under the leadership of Jiptha Boiragee, program support coordinator at TLMIB, conducted the research from March to August this year. A total of 255 people - 51% men, 49% women - from 17 districts across Bangladesh took part in the study.
Income reduced. shortage of food
The research findings presented by Roton Malo, project officer at TLMIB, showed that 26% leprosy patients had no source of income amid the pandemic.
Meanwhile, 47.85% of patients had no income source for 1 to 10 months during the pandemic.
Only 26.27% had regular jobs.
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A total of 46.61% families of leprosy patients faced food shortage during the pandemic, while eight respondents said they had to marry off their underage daughters to reduce family expenses.
Treatment stalled
The study also reveals that 89.8% of patients could not go to hospitals for treatment due to the movement restrictions enforced to curb Covid transmission.
Around 35.62% of people with leprosy-related ulcer stayed home without required health services during the pandemic, Roton Malo said while presenting the findings.
“However, 23.62% people received ulcer care at government hospitals,” he added.
No Covid vaccination
As of July 2021, no leprosy patients in Bangladesh had been vaccinated for Covid. Around 43% of the respondents refused to be vaccinated, and 42% of the families opined that their leprosy-affected member did not require the vaccine.
Speakers at the event urged for mass awareness programs by the NLP, partnering organizations to motivate leprosy patients and their family members to get vaccinated.
Mental health affected
The study also found that 27% of patients were having major depression while 5% were living with minor depression. The well-being status of 49% of people started to deteriorate during the pandemic.
The TLMIB research team used the Five-Wellbeing Index introduced by the World Health Organization (WHO) to examine the mental health status of leprosy patients.
Prof Shamiul Islam and the other health experts who took part in the discussion emphasized taking necessary steps to provide smooth healthcare services to leprosy patients in the country.
TLMIB researchers also disclosed findings of two more medical research papers titled “Effectiveness of single-dose rifampicin after BCG vaccination to prevent leprosy in close contacts of patients with newly diagnosed leprosy: A cluster randomized controlled trial,” and “Patients with skin smear positive leprosy in Bangladesh are the main risk factor for leprosy development: 21-year follow-up in the household contact study (COCOA).”
Dr Abu Sufian Chowdhury, research coordinator at TLMIB, and Md Khorshed Alam, project manager at TLMIB, presented the findings of the two medical studies.
