Infectious causes of childhood disability: Results from a pilot study in rural Bangladesh

Abstract

Purpose: To identify the contribution of infectious aetiologies to major childhood disabilities in Bangladesh. Methods: Active community-based survey was conducted for severe childhood disability using the Key Informants Method between September 2011 and March 2012 in a rural sub-district of Bangladesh. Results: We screened 1069 children and identified 859 with severe disabilities. The mean age of the disabled children was 8.5 year and 42.9% were girls. The major forms of impairments/conditions were cerebral palsy (n1/4324, 37.7%), hearing impairment (n1/4201, 23.4%), physical impairment (n1/4147, 17.1%), visual impairment (n1/449, 5.7%), cerebral palsy with epilepsy (n1/439, 4.5%) and epilepsy (n1/441, 4.7%). Congenital rubella syndrome was identified in 1.1% (n1/49). 7.1% disabilities resulted from clinically confirmed infections, and another 10.8% originated from probable infections; thus a total of 17.9% disabilities were related to an infectious origin. Conclusions: Infectious diseases appear to be one of the major causes of severe childhood disability in rural Bangladesh.