The silent pandemic: Social isolation and loneliness

OVER 700,000 Covid cases and 10,500 deaths and one year later, we are about to see another prolonged lockdown in Bangladesh. This means further social isolation associated with quarantine measures and added uncertainty at an already precarious moment in our lives. That being said, there seems to be little or no discussion about the mental health pandemic that is hitting young people at an all-time high. As Prothom Alo reported earlier this year, Bangladesh had recorded 70 percent more deaths from suicide than from the pandemic in the first year of the coronavirus outbreak. Almost half of the deceased were aged 20-35 years old, while 35 percent were aged 5-19, and 16 percent were aged 36-80.

Researchers are yet to claim that the restrictive measures taken as a safety precaution and the rate at which mental health problems are increasing are directly related. However, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), 8,462 people died from Covid-19 in the 365 days after the first coronavirus cases were detected in Bangladesh on March 8, 2020, while data collected by Aanchal Foundation found that 14,436 people committed suicide over the same period. Hence, this much should be acknowledged that the deterioration of mental health among younger individuals and social isolation due to lockdown measures may at least fall on the same spectrum.