COVID-19 threatens people with disabilities

 

By ANNIE ZULU

INABILITY to access necessary medical services during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown has led to deaths of some people with disabilities in Zambia.

Some people living with disabilities who needed regular therapy for survival could not access medical services because of health restrictions put in place to contain the virus.

It became very difficult especially for this vulnerable group of people to access medical services and consequently some lost their lives in the process.

According to the United Nations (UN), persons with disabilities are among the hardest hit by COVID-19. Even under normal circumstances, the 1 billion persons with disabilities worldwide are less likely to access health care.

Belinda Kabaso of Lusaka´s Matero Township lost her mother who was not only visually impaired, but diabetic too in April 2020 because she could not access medical help on time.

She explains, “When mom complained of not feeling too well, we immediately took her to Matero Level One Hospital. But since she was also diabetic she was not properly checked as health personnel were more concerned with COVID-19 so they sent us back home.

“Two days later her condition worsened and she died while we were taking her to the hospital,” Belinda said.

Mwanida Banda, another Lusaka resident, told this reporter how her brother who was physically impaired and had contracted COVID-19 died in June as a result of the trauma of been in isolation centre with strangers.

Mwanida’s brother used to get nervous and develop convulsions around strangers so the family had asked the management at Levy Mwanawasa Hospital where he was isolated to allow a relative to stay besides him but the request was turned down considering the nature of the disease.

“My brother was conscious when they evacuated him from the house in an ambulance and taken to Levy Mwanawasa Hospital.  Later when he regained conscious, he found himself in a place with strangers, there was no support system that he is used to and he started convulsing.

“As a family, we became concerned because we knew that when my brother is exposed to strangers, he goes into convulsions. We informed the hospital about this and asked them to allow at least a close relative to be part of health personnel caring for him but they refused.

“They also refused to allow us to give him his highly specialised wheelchair, so this situation contributed to the death of my brother,” she claimed.

But besides the health implications, COVID-19 has also inflicted serious social and economic consequences, especially on vulnerable people.

Majority of people with disabilities are said to be poor and the outbreak of the pandemic has just worsened their situation.

The Zambia Agency for Persons with Disabilities (ZAPD) Director General Julien Mwape explained how COVID-19 was adversely affecting her members.

ZAPD Director General Julien Mwape 

“People with disabilities are among the most vulnerable to COVID-19. Many are poor and the lockdown few months ago saw livelihoods being disrupted as most of them are on the streets and not in formal employment.

“The lockdown entailed people staying home and this caused poverty levels to increase and some have not recovered up to now,” Ms Mwape said.

She called for a strategic intervention plan, stressing there was no disability protocol in the response towards COVID-19 at many levels.

“The general response mechanism that was put out did not really cater for persons with disability and did not take all the disability aspects into focus.

“People with disabilities are not consulted before COVID-19 messages are conceptualised, and the channels of dissemination are not accessible to them. Many don’t own radio or television sets some of them are visually impaired and can’t read or write,” she said.

However, Ms Mwape believes not all is not lost even in these challenging times, provided Government puts in more efforts to establish and strengthen interventions.

“Generally what can help is a proper social protection response strategy that should help us bring back people to livelihood.  Our Government should do what every country is doing out there, plan for shock responsive social protection.

“Putting in place a shock responsive social protection strategy, something that can help reduce shock but still enable those in authority to reach the vulnerable.

“Times like this require careful planning such as knowing proper statistics and data. So Government needs to plan in such a way that people are not left on their own health wise and in any other aspects of life,” she said.

The 2017 report by the Zambia Federation of Disability Organisation (ZAFOD) indicates that Zambia has about 2 million persons living with disabilities. Visual, hearing, physical, communication and intellectual impairments are the prevalent forms of disability in country.