Neurorehabilitation in time of COVID 19: A perspective from Pakistan

Abstract

A global public health emergency, the coronovirus disease-2019 pandemic has impacted every way of life, including neuro-rehabilitation, worldwide. Issues related to increased service demand in primary care, exhausted or insufficient healthcare facilities were significantly high in low and middle-income countries, like Pakistan, with already a struggling health infrastructure. This required major change in health service delivery and impacted rehabilitation care of vulnerable patients with neurological conditions and impairments. For the current review, relevant key words and their combinations were used for literature search, including 'COVID 19', 'SARS-CoV-2', 'Corona Virus', 'rehabilitation', 'physical rehabilitation', 'pandemic', 'NCOC', 'lockdown', 'health services', 'physical therapy', 'disability', 'access', 'tele-rehabilitation', 'research', 'human resource', 'healthcare', etc. The platforms searched were Google search, Google Scholar and PubMed. The idea was to highlight how the pandemic impacted neuro-rehabilitation care in countries like Pakistan throughout the pandemic duration and during the lockdowns.

Keywords: COVID 19, Disability, Health services, Neuro rehabilitation, Pakistan..