Focus must be on preventing deaths: Experts

NEW DELHI: Three Indian medical associations have said that creating containment zones and aggressive testing for Covid-19 offers little advantage in large cities where the infection has already spread wide. The focus should instead be on preventing deaths from Covid-19, they have suggested in a joint statement to the prime minister.“While being optimistic, the prevention and control strategy should also prepare for the worst. It must assume that an effective vaccine would not be available in the near future. We must avoid false sense of hope that this panacea is just around the corner,” said the statement issued by the Indian Public Health Association, the Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine and the Indian Association of Epidemiologists.ET has reviewed a copy of the statement, in which experts from these associations said the pandemic is a public health problem and should be dealt with “empathy and meaningful community engagement”. “We strongly and unequivocally advocate for a public health approach for the novel coronavirus pandemic control, with the maximum possible good being done for the largest possible numbers,” they said.The experts recommend doing away with the practice of stamping and barricading the houses of those who test positive. “It is creating fear in society. This practice should be abandoned immediately,” they said. 77862629The signatories of the statement include former advisors to the health ministry, current and former professors of All India Institute for Medical Sciences, Benaras Hindu University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, among others.The experts find no rationale for quarantining of inter-state travellers. “This should be stopped immediately. Citizen-friendly measures like following home quarantine/isolation, which has been an effective strategy in many cities/states should be followed,” they said.The committee has recommended that lockdowns as a strategy should be discontinued and only cluster restrictions of short durations should be imposed. “Cluster restrictions should be considered only in areas with no community transmission. Even cluster restrictions should be imposed after weighing the impact of the same on the livelihood of the target population,” it said.

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