How can India fight the war against COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has effectively put the medical infrastructure in India to test. In many ways, it was a wake-up call for the entire nation to understand the level of medical advancement a country requires to tackle such a crisis.
From 1918 to 2020 we have not made any progress. The whole world slept over a pandemic namely “SPANISH FLU” after its disappearance, which took the life of more than 15 million people. Have we made any progress in this country?
When the virus began infecting India one of the biggest concerns was that, countries like Canada and Italy with few of the best health care systems in the world were struggling to cope up, what was India going to do? We have to take the example of countries like Taiwan and now even Turkey. The over population in our Country just seemed to worsen the matter for us. The primary reason for an early nation-wide lockdown was the lack of well-equipped medical infrastructure to tackle the pandemic if it were to affect us.
Fast forward to the current situation, the virus has struck us with all its might and the reality is that, India’s medical infrastructure is just not equipped enough to deal with this health crisis. Our infra structure in health has to improve in all branches.
Apart from whatever medicines one might advocate, increasing the IMMUNITY is the Hall Mark of success in any type of medical therapy, if it has to be successful.
In states like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu where the cases are rapidly climbing, the number of testing centres is much higher than that of other states but even that remains insufficient to meet the growing demand. It is in such case scenarios that private players are pulled in to help out. The number of available beds to admit COVID-19 patients is far from being enough. The current statistic is that in India, there are 8.5 beds per 10,000 people. These numbers are certainly a matter of grave concern when a highly infectious disease is making the rounds. Moreover, unavailability or badly maintained isolation wards with insufficient medical staff has also become a pressing issue.
It has been made evident that the Indian Public Health Care system is in need of some major changes and rapid reforms. On an ad-hoc basis, the only viable solution is more funding to facilitate better equipment of resources for the health care workers with indigenous research.
An ironclad system should be put in place with a priority to medical advancement. When India’s medical infrastructure is strong it will inevitably have a positive impact on the growth of the country in its entirety.
Discipline is the most important factor in fighting any of these contagious outbreak or diseases. It is unfortunate to see the lack of discipline from the public, who have not adhered to the social distancing norms. Also, there is a lack of implementation of discipline from the authorities. By opening liquor shops, all the containment efforts of months went down the drain. While, it may seem difficult to distance oneself, it is imperative to understand that our actions will affect everyone around us.
We have seen so many cases where people have broken quarantine or not informed authorities about their symptoms because of the taboo associated with it. In a time like this, literacy plays a crucial role. It is important to create awareness about individual’s role in fighting this pandemic.
This pandemic should be looked at as a lesson, for India to step-up its game in the field of medicine. A lesson to improve the standard of living by increasing sanitary and hygiene measures. A lesson to improve the overall health of Indian citizens. Such jarring gaps in our medical infrastructure can only be filled with technological advancements through meticulous research. All this can be achieved by vigorously investing in basic Indigenous Research, Development with honesty, accountability and transparency.
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