The Fred Hollows Foundation supplies five healthcare facilities with personal protective equipment
Dhaka, 22 May 2020: With support from the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP), The Fred Hollows Foundation has had the flexibility to repurpose funds from their Comprehensive Eye Care activities in Bangladesh to responding to COVID-19.
The fund will nearly assist 100 eye care professionals, benefit 20,000 people in accessing eye healthcare services, and raise health awareness for more than 10,000 people.
The Foundation’s Bangladesh Country Manager Dr. Zareen Khair said the efforts would support COVID-19 activities across the country to supply five hospitals with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and increase health messaging.
“We would like to thank both The Fred Hollows Foundation and Australian Aid for supporting us with the PPEs and other necessary equipment during COVID-19 Situation,” said Dr. ATM Tamjidul Islam Sajay, Ophthalmologist at Mazharul Haque BNSB Eye Hospital in Chandpur.
In Bangladesh, the coronavirus epidemic is threatening medical personnel including eye health workers who are being redeployed to help with the growing health crisis.
Eye health workers are also risking their lives to care for patients living with blindness and visual impairment as they are in close contact with patients during consultation, screening or treatment service.
A shortage of PPE in Bangladesh means eye health workers are at risk of getting infection because of potential exposure to patients with COVID-19 virus infection. Our partner hospitals have been forced to limit their operating capacity and decided to only receive emergency cases.
To ensure the eye care services are continued, the Bangladesh team has sourced, distributed, and supplied additional PPEs to healthcare providers in Cox's Bazar, Chandpur, Mymensingh, Khulna and Jashore.
Generally, before the lockdown, the Mazharul Haque BNSB Eye Hospital averaged 700 patients per day in the base and vision centre.
Hospital saw a nearly 93% drop in eyecare visits, and suspect public fears of exposure to coronavirus as one of the main causes.
After PPE supplies, the hospital increased its capacity and now eyecare workers are less fearful of exposure to coronavirus. Now the average has increase from fewer than 50 in-person visits a day to seeing 170 patients at the base and vision centre.
“As a doctor, I need to continue my care service, especially during these crucial times. PPE increased my confidence to examine patients closely and they felt safe too. The chance of contamination is very low, as we now maintain proper safety protocol,” Dr. Sajay added.
In addition, the team launched a COVID-19 prevention awareness campaign in poor, remote and urban areas in Dhakka, a home to the largest number of confirmed cases. The national mass campaign aims to help change people’s behaviour and raise their awareness about lockdown lifestyle, social distancing, hygiene, symptoms and helpline numbers.
Bangladesh now has 22,268 confirmed cases, 4,373 confirmed recovered cases and 328 confirmed deaths, according to a JHU CSSE's tracker as of Monday, May 18.
In Bangladesh, 750,000 people are blind and more than 6 million are visually impaired. Almost 1.3 million children live with low vision due to refractive errors, the second largest cause of visual impairment in Bangladesh.