title: Infectious causes of childhood disability: results from a pilot study in rural Bangladesh.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  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 (n = 324, 37.7%), hearing impairment (n = 201, 23.4%), physical impairment (n = 147, 17.1%), visual impairment (n = 49, 5.7%), cerebral palsy with epilepsy (n = 39, 4.5%) and epilepsy (n = 41, 4.7%). Congenital rubella syndrome was identified in 1.1% (n = 9). 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.
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases, Sydney, NSW 2145, Australia The Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2145, Australia The Marie Bashir Institute for Emerging Infections and Biosecurity (MBI), Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2145, Australia gulam.khandaker@health.nsw.gov.au.
authors.forename: Gulam
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Khandaker
authors.affiliation: Child Sight Foundation (CSF), Dhaka 1213, Bangladesh Faculty of Public Health and Life Sciences, University of South Asia, Dhaka 1213, Bangladesh.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Muhit
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases, Sydney, NSW 2145, Australia.
authors.forename: Harunor
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rashid
authors.affiliation: Child Sight Foundation (CSF), Dhaka 1213, Bangladesh.
authors.forename: Aynul
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: Child Sight Foundation (CSF), Dhaka 1213, Bangladesh.
authors.forename: Johurul
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Islam
authors.affiliation: The Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2145, Australia The Marie Bashir Institute for Emerging Infections and Biosecurity (MBI), Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2145, Australia.
authors.forename: Cheryl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases, Sydney, NSW 2145, Australia The Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2145, Australia The Marie Bashir Institute for Emerging Infections and Biosecurity (MBI), Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2145, Australia.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Booy
mesh_terms: D001459:Bangladesh / Q000453:epidemiology; D002547:Cerebral Palsy; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D019988:Children with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D012424:Rural Population
keywords: Bangladesh; Disability; infection; key informants method