The number of patients with life threatening diseases is increasing rapidly and requirement of palliative care is also on the rise simultaneously. It has been estimated that worldwide around 40 million people need palliative care and among them 78% live in middle and low income countries. In Bangladesh, it has been estimated that more than 0.6 million people are in need of palliative care at any given point of time.

Palliative care is required for a wide range of diseases. The majority of adults in need of palliative care have chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases (38.5%), cancer (34%), chronic respiratory diseases (10.3%), AIDS (5.7%) and diabetes (4.6%). Many other conditions may require palliative care, including kidney failure, chronic liver disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, neurological disease, dementia, congenital anomalies and drug-resistant tuberculosis.

Pain is the most frequent and serious symptom prevalent in palliative care patients. For instance- 80% of the advance cancer or AIDS patients, 67% of the cardiovascular or chronic obstructive pulmonary patients experience moderate to severe pain at the end of their life. With this respect, for effective pain management and to improve the quality of life, there is a huge need of palliative care in the health sector.