Elderly people, aged 60 years or above, make up around 7.5% of Bangladesh’s total population, but they account for around 80 percent of Covid fatalities due to comorbidities and weakened immune systems, say health experts.

As the government is set to embark on a special drive to vaccinate one core people in a week from August 7, they said a strategy should be there to immunise the senior citizens on the top priority basis to reduce the growing Covid death rate in the country.

The analysts also said community engagement and mobile vaccination teams are crucial to ensure the vaccines for elderly people, especially in rural areas, as they are less aware of the vaccines while many of them are sick and unable to go to the vaccination centres.

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Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Sunday said one crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines will be administered among people in a festive mood across the country on August 7-14.

Low infection high mortality

Talking to UNB, Robed Amin, spokesman of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), said the percentage of people aged over 60 infected with the coronavirus is relatively low, but the mortality rate in this group is very high as they suffer from various critical diseases.

He said the senior citizens are mostly getting infected by young people while 80% of them are dying from the virus infection. “As per our data, around 80% of Covid deaths in our country are among people in their 60s or older.”

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Prof AKM Nurun Nabi, founder Chairman of Dhaka University’s Population Sciences department, said elderly people aged 60 years and above constitute around 7.5% (12.5 million) of the country’s total population. “Elderly people are usually vulnerable to any disease as they lose their resistance power and suffer from various chronic and critical diseases. So, the mortality rate of aged Covid-19 patients is very high all over the world."

Prioritising vaccination

Dr Robed said the government will give priority to senior citizens in providing the vaccine doses during the upcoming mass vaccination drive.

He said there will be separate queues for the male and female elderly people at every vaccination centre.

Robed said the elderly citizens will be able to receive the vaccines only by showing NID cards. “Those who have no NID cards will also be able to get the vaccine by showing other reliable documents like passports, birth certificates or other certificates by public representatives."

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He said necessary directives are given at the field level so that seniors can smoothly receive the vaccine without any hassles. “If we can successfully bring the senior citizens under the vaccine coverage, the Covid fatality rate will decline subsequently.”

Vaccine disparity

Public health expert MH Chowdhury (Lenin), chairman of the medicine department at the Health and Hope Hospital, said all countries in the world are vaccinating senior citizens first as they are most vulnerable to the Covid-19. “But it’s unfortunate that our elderly people were not given the top priority since the beginning of the mass vaccination programme.”

He said one kind of disparity has been created in distributing the vaccines due to the online registration process, depriving many older people of availing of the scope to get vaccinated. “We know elderly people have some sort of technophobia and reluctance about using technology. So, many elderly people couldn’t register for the vaccine using the Surokkha app. Only some educated and urban senior citizens have so far received the vaccines.”

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Dr Lenin appreciated the government’s move to relax the condition of registration for vaccines, and said it will have to be ensured that the seniors do not have to wait for a long time in queues as they have various physical problems.

Former World Health Organisation (WHO) regional advisor Muzaherul Huq said the elderly citizens are vulnerable to experiencing critical conditions after getting infected with Coronavirus as many of them have health complications, including liver, lung, kidney and heart problems, and diabetes. “The fatality rate among this group of people is very high in Bangladesh like other countries.”

As per the WHO’ guidelines, he said elderly people should be given the second most priority after the frontliners or those who are involved in the medical system in providing the vaccines. “But our government didn’t follow it. Rather, it has lowered the vaccination age limit to 18 years. I think such an approach is not consistent with the WHO suggestions.”

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Forming mobile teams

Lenin said the government should form a mobile team in every ward or union to vaccinate older people who are unable to come to vaccine centres.

“From our previous experiences, we can say many elderly people couldn’t come to vaccine centres for many reasons. Many of them are bedridden ones or have no one to take them to centres. So, the mobile teams can vaccinate at their homes,” he said.

The expert said many seniors will remain out of the vaccine coverage if the mobile teams are not formed. “So, a well-thought-out strategy is necessary to ensure vaccines for elderly people."

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Completing vaccination by one year

Dr Lenin said it seems Covid-19 will not be eliminated through vaccination as booster doses may require every year to remain safe from the virus.

“So, the government should have a target for completing the vaccination drive by March next.  “We’ll have 21 crore doses of vaccines by January next and we’ll be able to vaccinate 80 percent of our population if we can collect four more crore more doses. So, the government needs to make efforts to get another four crore jabs to complete the mass vaccination by March, and then it will be able to give people booster doses in due time.”

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