Conquering COVID 19 in India: Anxiety, Myths & Superstitions.

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What is Pandemic?
 
  • In simple terms pandemic is the worldwide spread of a new disease or an existing disease evolved in new form due to genetic mutation.
  • On 11th March 2020 WHO declared COVID 19 pandemic.

What is an outbreak, endemic, epidemic, and pandemic?


  • Outbreak - Any increase in the number of endemic cases or a single case in a new area. An outbreak can become an epidemic if not responded on time.
  • Endemic - Any disease prevalent in a region.
  • Epidemic - If any disease affects a large number of people in a country. 


What is COVID - 19? Where does it report first?


  • COVID 19 means COrona VIrus Disease-2019.
  • SARS COV 2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - COronaVirus 2) is the organism responsible for COVID 19.
  • It was firstly reported in Wuhan city, Hubei province of  China on 31st December(1)
  • It is assumed to have a zoonotic origin. 
  • Its genomic sequence was first described by China on January 12(1)
  • In India, it is first reported from Kerala on 30th January. (2)


Does COVID 19 have the potential to cause a pandemic?


  • It is a highly pathogenic & contagious viral infection that mainly affects the human respiratory system.
  • It simulates viruses like SARS Cov(Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus) & MERS Cov (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus) which have caused a pandemic in the past 2003 & 2012 respectively.


What is the Case Fatality Rate of COVID 19?


  • Case fatality ratio (CFR)(3) is the proportion of individuals diagnosed with a disease who die from that disease and is therefore a measure of severity among detected cases:

  • There is quite a large variation from country to country due to various factors like demographics of the country, reporting status, etc.
  • Infection Fatality Rate (IFR): The true severity of a disease can be described by the Infection Fatality Ratio:

  • Current estimation of IFR converging at approximately 0.5 - 1%.(3)


What is the Case fatality rate & Recovery rate in India?


  • To date, (10/09/2020) total number contracted with COVID 19 is 4.4 million.
  • The recovery rate is 77.2 % and the fatality rate is 1.68 %. (4)
  • But recent publication in Lancet has questioned the reporting and actual fatality rate of India (5)


What is the actual current status of COVID 19 battling India?


  • The Indian government is giving great effort in battling COVID 19. But following discrepancies are happening that has to seek:-
  • A recent publication in Lancet(5) raised the following vital issues:-
  1. As the majority of the Indian population resides in rural India where the health care facility is not good enough to timely report deaths. i.e Delayed registration.
  2. Improper Surveillance
  3. Improper Utilization of gold standard test of COVID 19 diagnosis i.e RT PCR which has sensitivity as high as 98%.(6)
  4. Increase in recent use of the rapid antigen test which has a high false-negative rate. Rapid antigen tests have a sensitivity of around 50-90%. i.e One of two individuals might be underreported as not having a virus. (6)
  5. Under-reporting of cases & deaths related to COVID 19.


What is the behavior of the Indian population towards COVID 19?


  • An enormous amount of fear & anxiety is present in the general population. The cause might be many like the improper picturization of the actual scenario by media, improper access of the healthcare system to citizens especially rural citizens.
  • India is a country of superstitions, It is also becoming one of the causes which are refraining peoples of the country to timely access the health care system.
  • A huge amount of myths regarding COVID19 is prevailing across the country especially via various social and other forms of media.
  • India is a country with a high rate of illiteracy; which is also hampering the battle against COVID 19.


Health care system of India & COVID 19 battle.


  • Yes, it is the brutal truth that with this level of advancement Indian health infrastructure resides on 145th rank among 195 countries globally. (7) The government of India spends very little on Health care infrastructure from there GDP. 
  • India is a rural country; the majority of the population in India resides in rural areas and has inappropriate access to health care systems and other grave issues like affordability, improper infrastructure, etc exists.
  • The health care system of India is facing a grave deficit in terms of human power. 
  • We can our self understand the current scenario of India - "handicapped health infrastructure battling COVID 19 pandemic involving the world's second-most populous country"
  • The government of India is trying to improvise health care access but still, a large pit has to be filled.


Impact of COVID 19 in humankind.


  • Human beings are social animals who like to be social. This COVID 19 pandemic is trying to make people anti-social.
  • This has impacted humankind not only in terms of health but also has hit harder economically; it has collapsed the private sector as well as the public sector leading to hampering people's life in terms of jobs, business, earnings, etc.
  • It is transforming our relationship with the environment. It is a harsh fact that humankind is partially or fully responsible for various infectious outbreaks like HIV, SARS, Influenza pandemic, and now COVID 19 pandemic. Now many countries including India reporting cleaner & less polluted climate. Some states in India have reported a fall of the level of Nitrogen dioxide from 52 per cubic meter to 15 in the same period -- also a 71% fall. Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Bangalore have also recorded a fall in these air pollutants(8).

Hope against COVID-19 Pandemic.

  • Vaccine: Vaccine can be hope in battling COVID 19; with due advancement in science & technology many pharmaceutical companies have come up with various effective products that are currently in clinical trials.
  • Appropriate Medication to combat COVID 19 - Various medications have been tried and various are in ongoing trials.
What is currently in our hands :
  1. Social distancing
  2. Proper & frequent hand sanitization
  3. Face Masks, Face Shields
  4. Flawless education
  5. Early access to healthcare on developing symptoms.
  6. Contact Tracing: Making near contacts informed & get them tested on contracting COVID 19.

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