This research study, published in The Lancet’s E Clinical Medicine Journal, corroborates on many such findings which are resulting from multiple scientific and clinical studies: the Sars-CoV-2 virus impacts the brain, and its repercussions can be long-lasting and can be felt long after the patient recovers. The cognitive deficits can persist into the recovery phase for a prolonged period.

It has been found that deficit in cognition was worse among patients who suffered from severe respiratory symptoms and among those who turned out positive in a covid test. The researchers calibrated their analysis to account for difference based on age, gender, education, pre-existing medical disorders, depressions, anxiety and other demographic and socio-economic variables to discard any biases into the results.

Another study, led by neuroscientists and researchers in Oxford university, covered detailed analysis of the brain scans of people before and after they contracted Covid-19. The study found that in over 400 people, there was a significant loss of grey matter that indicates some amount of brain damage and damage to the areas that involved functions related to taste, cognition and memory formation.

A team of scientists and clinicians attending the 2021 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference presented findings from Greece and Argentina that Covid-19 resulted cognitive impairments in older adults, including lack of smell and early Alzheimer-like symptoms.

These findings across the world and subsequent surge in Covid cases owing to the new Omicron variant calls for a more detailed and deep understanding of the long-term neurological impacts of Covid-19.

The post Long Covid to Diminish Cognitive Abilities appeared first on New Age Healthcare.

In the absence of a veritable vaccine for coronavirus, countries around the globe have turned to contact tracing technology to limit the spread of the contagion, assist health bodies track individual and subsequent community exposure, and to relax lockdown restrictions. There is a deluge of contact tracing mobile apps and in the last two months, around 45 such apps have been launched worldwide in over 25 countries, emphasizing the critical significance of digital contact tracing. Albeit proven to be an effective tool, these apps are engulfed by ample disputes and controversies pertaining to violation of privacy infringements guidelines and data protection laws inviting severe rebuke from activists, privacy advocates and cybersecurity experts.

Mechanism of action

The contact tracing apps require constant access to location history through GPS. The user has to input information such as name, mobile number, age, gender, profession, travel history etc. Bluetooth range is considered as proximity sensor and helps to alert a user if there is a possible contact with another user who is infected. Around 70% of these apps globally work on the centralized model which effectively means that the location details and the collected anonymized data by the app is channeled into a centrally run database rather than storing locally on the user’s phone (known as the decentralized model). This database is most likely controlled by the country’s government or the local health regulatory body raising serious questions on the transparency and the cybersecurity-hygiene principles adopted to stop misuse of this data for any unintended purpose.

Aarogya Setu: Benefits and the Controversy

On April 2^nd, India’s official tracing app, Aarogya Setu, was launched with aplomb. Since then it has witnessed 120 million downloads till May 29^th, making it the most downloaded contact tracing app in the world (and the seventh most downloaded app worldwide in April overtaking Netflix). Available in 12 languages, the app has helped to predict 3000 virus hotspots at a sub-post office level, traced over 500,000 people and alerted over 140,000 Indians of possible infections.

The data that the Aarogya Setu app collects is divided into four categories—demographic, self-assessment, contact and location and is stored and managed on the government servers. Data is deleted from the government server after a maximum of 60 days and the information stored on phone in 30 days. Recently, MIT downgraded the rating of the app (1 star out of 5) citing reason that the app does not follow the principle of ‘data minimalization’ – implying that it collects far more data points from the user than actually required for contact tracing.

Privacy advocates and cybersecurity experts have raised serious questions on the legal framework and the standard operating procedure around the Aarogya Setu app. It has been alleged that this app breaches privacy of the citizens as the government can use the app and the data to monitor and control individuals. A popular French ethical hacker flagged security vulnerabilities in the app and apparently leaked on twitter some info collected from the app. Many experts have also stated that data of millions of Indians, collected through the Aarogya Setu app, could land up in ‘adversarial hands’ ensuing a national security challenge.

Taking a cue from Australia, Israel, Singapore and UK, Indian government recently made the app open-source which makes it open for developers, researchers, coders and hackers to find flaws and loopholes in the app. An award of INR 100,000 can be earned by submitting any bug in the app which will help the government to improve it. However, the open-source code of the app only shows how the app interacts with user disclosing nothing on what is happening on the server side. This again poses numerous data privacy and security concerns.

What countries are doing

China was amongst the first few countries to launch these apps systematically for its population and this played a pivotal role in arresting the spread and lift regional lockdowns in the country. Despite questions being raised on the efficacy of these apps, countries such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea have successfully used mobile app technology to keep a strict eye on the people in quarantine thereby limiting the outbreak. In Australia and Singapore, users can request for their data stored on government servers to be deleted.

Implications of these data security concerns are rampant. A security flaw in Qatar’s coronavirus contact tracing app risked the sensitive personal data of more than one million people before it was fixed. In Poland, the official contract tracing app is in the heart of a debate on privacy and surveillance where numerous opportunities for abuse have been cited. Number of gulf countries – Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain – have made the use of the app mandatory issuing warning of jail terms for violators which has led to severe backlash from regulators and activists. US has no contract tracing plan yet for its citizens but many of the states have announced their own in the form of apps working on the Bluetooth technology or by simply sending survey questionnaires via text or email to gather information from the people to track the infection.

However, amidst the privacy issues encircling the contact tracing apps, many countries are taking appropriate measures. Europe follows one of the sternest privacy regulations in world. Switzerland has launched the world’s first contact tracing app built on the API platform developed by Google and Apple together which follows a decentralized approach. UK is also conducting trials to develop a second app which is based on this Apple-Google API (UK’s first app is based on the centralized model). Germany, Italy, Austria and Ireland are also contemplating on building apps using the Apple-Google API.

Trade-off between public health and individual’s privacy

Mounting apprehensions related to such apps should act as a warning to governments which in hope of surgical digital precision are gushing out poorly designed contact tracing apps without a robust supporting legal framework. Citizens and activists within many countries have warranted concerns that governments can use this public health crisis for uncalled surveillance and violate their fundamental rights. A recent research by experts in John Hopkin University suggests that that privacy should not outweigh public health goals and other values.

Conversely, this situation can be looked upon from a different lens. The world is combating an unprecedented crisis and these challenging times calls for some degree of trade-off between regulations and measures to mitigate health, economic and humanitarian challenges brought about by coronavirus pandemic. Over-emphasis on privacy will impact the ability to gather information which is essential for effective contract tracing. Governments, tech organizations and regulatory bodies should collaborate to instil transparency and increase trust for the efficacy of the app amongst people. Publicly releasing the source code of the contact-tracing apps done by India, UK and other countries is a first step in that direction. This could go a long way in setting standards for using data for tackling health crisis.

The post Contact Tracing Apps: Privacy Implications and Trade-offs appeared first on New Age Healthcare.

Aarogya Setu: India’s Contact Tracing App

On April 2, India launched its official contact tracing app – Aarogya Setu. The app has witnessed steady downloads since its launch reaching to 115 million downloads by 26^th May, making it the most downloaded contact tracing app in the world (and the seventh most downloaded app worldwide in April). It is available in 12 languages across both android and iOS platforms. According to the Indian government, the app has successfully predicted 3,000 coronavirus hotspots at a sub-post office level and alerted more than 140,000 users about possible infections. It is mandatory to install this app if you have to use the recently opened airline services in India. Employees of few private organisations and public sector units have been compulsory asked to use the app while entering the office premises.

How does the app work?

Around 70% of the contact tracing apps run on a centralised system which effectively means that the location and the data processed by the app is funnelled into a centrally run database maintained by the government or a local health body. India’s app also functions on this centralised system and requires continuous access to location history through Bluetooth and GPS. The entire data collected via the app is stored and managed on the government servers. MIT recently downgraded the rating of the app (1 out of 5) as the app does not follow the principle of ‘data minimalization’ – meaning that it collects far more data points from the user than actually required for contact tracing. The data that the Aarogya Setu app collects is divided into four categories—demographic, self-assessment, contact and location. The collected information includes person’s name, mobile number, age, gender, profession, travel history, locations of individuals around you etc. The app can constantly access your location.

Privacy Infringement Concerns

Ever since its launch, the Aarogya Setu app has faced constant ire by privacy advocates and cybersecurity experts for privacy and transparency issues. Some have alleged that this app can be used in future for mass surveillance to control and monitor the movements of the population. The concerns also stem from the fact that India lacks robust data protection laws and the established frameworks that regulate the collection, storage, and use of the collected public health data. In the recent past, multiple cases of unauthorised data breaches and subsequent data leaks have appeared in India, which makes it hard to trust government’s claim of data security through this app.

On the other hand, the developer of the app claims that the app is safe, secure and the data collected is encrypted. Indian government recently made the app open-source making it open for developers and experts to find vulnerabilities in the app. The Government has also announced a bug bounty program to allow security researchers win an award of INR 400,000 by highlighting any issues and flaws within the app. This will increase the transparency and help in building trust.

Watch this second episode of ‘India Health Talk’, focusing on the privacy issues around the Arogya Setu and potential trade-offs to arrest the spread of novel coronavirus.

The post Aarogya Setu App: Life-Saving or Privacy Invasion appeared first on New Age Healthcare.

In another caustic case, a 25 yr old pregnant woman in Delhi, visited two of the leading government hospitals in Delhi for antenatal care. Both the hospitals denied her admission as she was not Covid-19 positive. As a result, she visited 6 hospitals and maternity clinics in next 48hrs before giving birth outside AIIMS. Many hospitals and nursing homes are completely shut even if one case comes up in them.

Patients Struggle for Health Services

There are plethora of such cases rising across the country as our healthcare system is under stress from managing the contagion outbreak. This is despite the fact that GoI has asked state chief secretaries to ensure that hospitals and clinics do not ask for a Covid test report from every patient who requires medical treatment. This raises red-flags and serious questions on the local authorities and regulatory bodies who have also threatened to cancel the operating license of hospitals and clinics, if they turn away any non-Covid patient. Patients also fear of the escalated economic cost if their treatment cost is not claimed or reimbursed as not all nursing home and clinics fall under health insurance policies.

Similar danger mounts on Cancer and TB patients. India has the world’s largest TB load of 25%. In Mumbai, due to COVID, lack of adherence to TB drug regimen has risen to 40% from 15%. A significant decrease in TB notification has been witnessed which indicated that access to a TB center and subsequent diagnosis and reporting has been severely hit. These are dangerous signs which are being ignored. A TB patient can infect 10-15 more, and such patient can become a breeding-ground of new Coronavirus cases as Covid hits hard on low immunity patients. Many senior oncologists have claimed that due to difficulty in travelling during lockdown, many hospitals not providing regular treatment, hospitals shutting down and fear of contracting covid, have resulted in a delayed diagnosis of cancer patients which can push them to an advanced stage of cancer.

Haphazard Guidelines

There has to be clear and stringent guidelines by MoH to each state health authorities highlighting the delirious effect of not providing critical care to non-Covid cases. State should ensure that no patient is denied treatment for any ailment by a hospital (government or private). Instead of shutting down the entire hospital even for one covid case, a wiser approach of creating zones within the hospital can be implemented. Online, phone consultation and Tele-medicine modules should be made widespread thorough proper communication channels.

Our healthcare infrastructure is one of the weakest in the world with lack of adequate health care professional adding to the woes. We certainly can’t afford to inflict more burden on the already fragile healthcare services by denying treatment to those who are in need.

The post Pandemic’s Effect on Care of Non-Coronavirus Patients appeared first on New Age Healthcare.

On Feb 17, 31st case of coronavirus surfaced in Daegu, South Korea. On outlining the tracks of this ‘Patient 31’, public health official ascertained that in the last ten days the patient had attended two worship services with over 1000 people. Within a week, a 30-fold increase occurred in the nation’s number of cases. Since then, extensive use of analytics and data science has been central to South Korea’s approach in successfully ‘flattening the curve’. South Korean government has been tracking on quarantined people through a mobile app which also aids patients’ communication with the local health authorities to report symptoms.

The utilisation of data analytics to understand the causes of the pandemic is reflective of the substantial transformation in the potential of organisations and governments to collect massive amount of data and use AI algorithms to harness them. In this battle, firms have been collecting and processing real-time data at an unprecedented pace and scale. Countries such as India, Singapore, China, Korea, Spain and Israel have successfully developed and deployed indigenous mobile apps to provide instant notifications if an exposure to a covid infected person has occurred. Government health officials and epidemiologists then uses such data sets to track down and screen the exposed individuals and create hot-spot zones where stern isolation is implemented.

Artificial Intelligence for Monitoring and Drug Development

Baidu, a Chinese tech giant, uses infrared sensor and Artificial Intelligence powered facial recognition technology to predict people’s temperature at various airports and railway stations. Drones powered with AI-based thermal screening are deployed in public places by various nations to detect fever. AI and cloud computing are being used extensively to identify potential drugs and augment the research for coronavirus vaccine development. IBM has offered its AI-powered virtual agent, Watson Assistant for Citizens, which helps governments deliver accurate information to their citizens. Microsoft had released chatbots that can help people self-identify the best action plan based on their symptoms. Tech  majors – Apple and Google – recently announced a collaboration for developing a decentralised contact tracing tool. Machine-learning tools have analysed millions of social media posts in China to help predict the spread.

The aforementioned examples clearly indicate that the striking advances in data analytics and AI-based algorithms have provided a strong fillip to global efforts in identifying communities at risk and arresting the contagion spread. BlueDot, a Canadian AI-based infectious disease surveillance system, spotted the coronavirus nine days before WHO released an alert for the virus’ emergence. Scientists at Carnegie Melon University have developed an AI based tool that can determine a covid infected case by analyzing the sound of a person’s breath and cough.

Active monitoring and contact tracing, and analyzing real-time data is pivotal to assuage the stark implications stemming of the pandemic. Countries such as Singapore, India, Taiwan, China, South Korea, Spain, Norway, Belgium etc. have successfully deployed these data-driven predictive mechanisms. Today, smart phones are laced with high-end technology which can easily enable in mapping the travel patterns of people, thereby offering real-time date to telecom providers and tech firms. Data from CCTV footage and ATM transaction records have been used for contact tracing in Singapore and South Korea. A portable surveillance device powered by machine learning, FluSense, can detect coughing in real time at public places, and then analyse the data to monitor trends.

Pressure on Privacy Protection

This massive tracking of consumer behaviour and data has invited severe rebuke from privacy law activists across the globe terming it as ‘privacy-infringement’. Doubters of AI and data science technology complain that this is a blatant attack on the civic liberties brought upon populations in the name of disease-surveillance. There is a growing fear of how this data will be used once the crisis is over and whether such data sets are truly anonymous. However, we should look at the data privacy guidelines from a different lens to facilitate the suppression of this pandemic as precious lives are being lost on daily basis.

Governments and regulators need to provide assurance that data-use and analysis will not endanger privacy rights. Greater transparency is required amongst governments, telecom providers and tech firms that such data sharing will not result in any future regulatory action. The data by telecom providers need to be in an anonymised and aggregated format. More ‘privacy-friendly’ alternatives should be wrought and use of tracking apps should be done on voluntarily basis and non-intrusive.

Such arduous situation necessitates a fine balance between governments, regulators, telecoms, and tech firms. We need to wisely analyse the trade-off between saving lives and civil liberties during this public health emergency. Ample evidence of AI and data science being effective tools against coronavirus should enable consumers to understand that some leeway could be given to the individual privacy laws. We all need to think and act unitedly to mitigate the impact and the methodical use of technological solutions can prove to be a formidable and potent warrior.

The post AI and Data Analytics to Combat Health Pandemic appeared first on New Age Healthcare.

In this digital age, populations are benefitting from the constant flow of information related to covid19. Social media and instant messaging platforms are buzzing with videos, memes and trending hashtags, print media is being flooded with opined articles and by-liners from pundits, and news channels inundated with harried correspondents trying to bring every piece of information at your fingertips is quite common.

However, it becomes an arduous task for an individual to sift authentic and trustable information from the copious stream of content. As a result, a myriad of myths related to coronavirus has surrounded all of us. These myths incorporate multitudes of aspects connected to coronavirus – etiology, symptoms, vulnerability, treatment by home remedies, drugs/vaccines available, food habits, immunity boosters, effect of weather on virus potency etc. – which could be equally dangerous as the coronavirus itself. In a recent incident in Iran, more than 600 people died from the consumption of high-concentrated alcohol based on a rumour that it could prevent infection from coronavirus. The severity of these misplaced myths/fake news about the hazardous cures and viral hoaxes can be judged from such unfortunate episodes.

Based on my expertise and knowledge in medicine and healthcare, I have made an earnest attempt to dissect many of these myths in a 2-part video series (links below). The realities busting these fallacies that you see in the videos have been factchecked and corroborated through reliable and bona fide resources like WHO. I firmly believe that we as individuals need to play a much bigger role in this fight against the coronavirus and we can begin by putting a stop to misinformation about the contagion being circulated online.

Links to the ‘Coronavirus-Myths vs Reality’ video series:

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJOaScJ_3ic&t=19s

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5R7ta3o-5I&t=13s

About the Author

Dr. Anuj Chawla is one of the leading Orthopedics and Foot & Ankle Surgeon in India. He can be contacted at dranujchawla@gmail.com. For consultation with Dr. Anuj, book an appointment by visiting the website: http://dranujchawla.com/. You can also connect with him on the following social channels:

Twitter: @dranujortho Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doctoranujchawla/

The post Coronavirus Outbreak: Myths vs Facts appeared first on New Age Healthcare.

mRNA Vaccine

Pfizer is partnering with BioNtech for utilizing mRNA (messenger RNA) technology to develop the vaccine. This vaccine is expected to go for human trials in April. The mRNA technology platform is widely used for finding a cure of infectious diseases due to the low cost involved in the production and its better safety profile. Sanofi has also undertaken mRNA vaccine research and plans to begin the clinical testing by end of this year.

Blood Plasma Therapy

The underlying principle behind the blood plasma therapy is that the blood of a cured COVID-19 patient would have developed certain antibodies that can help a severely ill patient combat the virus and aid in recovery. The same therapy has been successfully implemented for treatment of other infectious diseases in past such as SARS, MERS and HINI. ICMR (India Council of Medical Research) considers this as a viable option of treatment in the absence of a vaccine and could try it out in few states in India. There have been few studies in China and US highlighting that few COVID patients have recovered using this therapy.

Anti-malarial and Anti-viral Drugs

Although there is no robust study which substantiates the effectiveness of the anti-malarial drug-Hydroxychloroquine to fight off coronavirus, many countries are vouching its use. India is the biggest producer of this drug and has agreed to export it to US, Israel and other countries in need. The potential usage of this drug against COVID-19 is under investigation in numerous trials. If proven effective, then this could a potential savior as the drug is cheap and can me made easily available where required.

Sesderma, a Spanish firm has claimed to successfully treat 75 COVID19 patients in Spain with its immune-strengthening supplemental drug. The company plans to work with ICMR in India for further clinical trials and is successful, this drug could be potential solution to end the pandemic.

Clearly, swift work is being carried out to speed up the process of discovering a potential solution that could end this crisis. The challenges for developing a vaccine are multifold but human resolve has been able to overcome massive hurdles in the past. It’s just a matter of time and till then the entire human race is hoping for the miraculous covid killer.

The post Searching: The COVID-19 Killer appeared first on New Age Healthcare.

Dashboards & Webpages:

Microsoft has launched a new interactive dashboard to provide information on the spread of the virus. The map highlights the total number of cases so far (18,59,000 as of today with 114,979+ deaths in over 175 countries) which is further broken down into cases per country. The tool pulls live data from variety of sources such as WHO, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), and Wikipedia.

Apart from this pandemic, populations have to address another menace in the form of false news, videos and content that are flooding social channels. To counter these, Facebook owned WhatsApp has launched a coronavirus-related information website in partnership with WHO, UNICEF and UNDP. This page has latest and accurate info for general population, governments and healthcare professionals enabling them to communicate efficiently in these tragic times.

Quro is a Covid-19 risk assessment tool developed by Medius Health, an AI digital health company in Australia. This easy-to-use online conversational platform is in accordance with WHO guidelines, and aids in determining  your level of risk based on your symptoms, medical & travel history. It thereby imparts accurate detailed education on the virus and collects data for healthcare providers for early intervention.

Mobile Apps:

Tech giants – Apple and Google – recently announced a collaboration for developing a decentralised contact tracing tool which will aid an individual in determining an exposure to someone infected with Covid-19. This technology will work via smartphone’s bluetooth system and will work on both android and iOS.

Many countries are working vehemently to develop contact tracing mobile apps that could aid in arresting the spread of the novel coronavirus. India has launched, Arogya Setu app, which works through GPS and bluetooth. This android and iOS app informs an asymptotic person when she is in close proximity with a covid infected person. It sends alerts on the mobile of the person along with instructions for isolation.

Singapore uses TraceTogether app which runs on the aforementioned principle. France is working to develop a similar app for its citizens. However, fingers have been raised on the ‘official’ use of such apps for security and data governance reasons.

Education Tools:

As increasing number of countries have shut down schools and colleges, there are various online tools available which can be used by students and educators. Ekstep, an on-demand open learning platform, facilitates creation and consumption of educational content. Plenty of educational content is available on the app which can be used by students in a self-paced manner. Online tutoring platform Vedantu is providing free live classes for all its courses including IIT preparation modules. Latest ed-tech unicorn, Byju’s, is offering free access to its learning app till the end of April.

This comprehensive list by UNESCO can help you to pick the most apt one suiting your objective.

Regional Languages Platforms:

Regional language content start-ups in India have started publishing accurate content in local languages related to coronavirus in order to tackle misinformation. Josh Talks has added advisories to all its videos on eight different languages and has also initiated a series of videos by doctors and healthcare professionals spreading more awareness about the disease. These videos are dubbed in local languages for people to easily understand. Local news platform Lokal, which delivers local news, information and classifieds to 900 million non-English speaking users in India, is amplifying awareness through sharing relevant and accurate info, emergency contact numbers, videos etc.

The novel coronavirus global pandemic is a medical emergency that also requires a substantial individual effort to combat its spread and impact. We should make sure that only authentic information is gained and spread for the benefit of all.

The post Digital Technology Response to Covid-19 appeared first on New Age Healthcare.

First, digest these stats: India has 7 beds per 10,000 people whereas the global median is 27 per 10,000 (Russia stands at 98, China at 38, Brazil 18). India does not even meet the doctor-patient ratio set by WHO (1 doctor per 1000 people) and it’s the worst among emerging economies standing at dismal 1 doctor per 10189 people. Event countries like Vietnam and Brazil have better ratio than India. However, India does recognize the imminent need of having more trained doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals (HCP) to boost the existing healthcare system. In the past few years, India has taken few swift steps to tackle this – 37 new medical colleges have been sanctioned and around 20000 MBBS seats have been added in 2019. India also suffers from massive ‘brain-drain’ in the field of medicine where students who aspire to be doctors study in China, Italy, Russia etc mainly due to the lack of medical seats here in India.

There is a severe shortage of HCPs in our primary and secondary healthcare centres and you can imagine the state of these in tackling rural healthcare issue leave alone the existing pandemic. Evidently, a lot still needs to be done by India to align with WHO norm of doctor-populations ratio of 1:1000. Niti Ayog (India’s think tank) have come up with ingenious strategies such as expanding district hospitals to become medical colleges, implementing PPP (public-private partnership) models and making existing and new medical colleges to adopt community  and primary health centres. An estimated, 50,000 seats (60% increase in our existing capacity) could be added by such steps. But can these strategies by-pass the red tape and see the light or once again will land in archives?

Second, the current pandemic invites deploying more telemedicine centres across cities and districts. 70% of healthcare infrastructure in India is limited to urban areas. Rural India has less than 5 hospital beds per 10,000 people, much worse than even countries such as Vietnam and Thailand (27 beds per 10,000). These ‘cloud hospitals’ can provide remote diagnosis and consultations, augment the access and quality of care to rural areas, and can act as warriors in times of such pandemic outbreak. As per a McKinsey report, if  telemedicine replaces 30-40% of in-person outpatient consultations, India could save up to $10 billion and improve care for the poor and those living in remote areas. Telemedicine can create 1.5 lakhs job in next 5 years. Also, our I robust IT industry is well equipped to cater to these needs and also address the challenges such as security and seamless transfer of health data. Digital transformation in healthcare by adoption of technologies such AI, IOT Cloud and Analytics can effectively democratize the healthcare system in India. (Here are some analytics and digital tools that are available today to track the course of Corona Virus)

Third, serious and drastic measures are required by India to become a manufacturing hub for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). India is proudly known as ‘pharmacy of the world’ – thanks to our massive exports of drugs to several nations. But the novel coronavirus has massively jeopardized India’s reputation. India pharma industry is heavily dependent on China for raw materials (known as APIs or bulk drugs) to produce medicines as basic as Crocin (API here is paracetamol). Around 70% of the total bulk drugs requirements comes from China. In 2018-19, Indian drug makers imported APIs worth $2.4 billion from China. Now, due to lockdown in China, India’s drug production for treating cancer, malaria, HIV and anti-biotics etc is being hit for its citizens’ usage. Need of the hour is to have policies for increasing R&D facilities in the country, providing financial and tax incentives to manufacture APIs and establishing stronger regulatory mechanisms.

Fourth, India needs to widen the insurance coverage net. At present, roughly 20% of India Population is under insurance coverage. Launch of Ayushman Bharat National Health Protection Mission (ABNHPM) in 2018 will have a huge impact in improving this landscape and increase insurance penetration by 40%. However, this faces significant hurdles such as lack of awareness, geographical spread of the coverage and lack of support from industry stakeholders, and huge dependency on technology.

Fifth, healthcare infrastructure in India needs to be boosted on war footing basis. India’s healthcare infrastructure is much below global peers. There is 1 government hospital bed for every 2046 people and 1 state-run hospital bed for every 90, 343 people. In the current scenario, Indian healthcare system will be over-stressed and break, if the number of cases rises due to Coronavirus. You don’t need an epidemic for the public health system to collapse. Public spending on health has remained stagnant or risen marginally in India’s major states since 2000, with the average spend for all states being a dismal 4.9% of state GDP. Indian government spending on healthcare has been less that 2% of GDP, lowest among emerging economies (even lower than Bangladesh). India needs to increase this spending to 5% of GDP, for which states must contribute more than 8% of their budgets on healthcare.

As we stand together in our fight against Covid-19, it also gives nations an opportunity to take a step back, assess, evaluate, devise measures to effectively improve the healthcare ecosystem, and create a safe and secure world for its inhabitants.

The post COVID-19: Time to Evaluate the Status Quo appeared first on New Age Healthcare.