Community medicine experts have key role in tackling pandemic

While the treatment for COVID-19 is being mainly administered by specialists, there appears a greater need for roping in experts from community medicine faculty to get to the root of the problem.

The strains identified during the second wave are clearly more virulent, and a rough estimate pegged the number of cases and deaths at double those witnessed during the first wave. The spurt in the number of clinical cases and higher mortality, dramatic rise in the use of medical oxygen and shortage of beds witnessed in public and private hospitals were clearly in tune with the prediction. It is here that the importance of involving the community medicine faculty, which deals with epidemiology and biostatistics, gets crucial.

Though all public health officials and administrators in medical and non-medical fields apply the principles for controlling the epidemic, it requires a qualified epidemiologist to lead the efforts. For reasons not known, community medicine specialists are generally restricted to teaching and research rather than being deployed on the field. When contacted by The Hindu, G. Ravi Prabhu, professor and head of Community Medicine at Sri Venkateswara Medical College, acknowledges the prevalence of the belief and attributes it to the general assumption that public health measures are easy to comprehend and do not require epidemiologists. “It is hence the COVID-19 control measures are largely carried out by partially-qualified epidemiologists,” Dr. Prabhu adds.

Team approach

Administrators have, of late, found the need for a team approach to tackle the pandemic. State officials have appointed nodal officers for every hospital to ensure better coordination.

Chittoor Collector M. Hari Narayanan recently held a meeting with the community medicine experts of SVIMS and Ruia hospitals. Even among medical personnel, treatment specialists such as general physicians, chest physicians, anaesthetists and emergency medicine experts found the need to work in tandem with epidemiologists and microbiologists to continuously monitor the epidemic trend.

Extending it beyond the purview of medical fraternity, the government machinery involving police, revenue, panchayat and transport sectors is also expected to ensure smooth execution of tasks like oxygen supply, transportation of drugs, sanitation of public places and adherence to the rule on masks and physical distance, considered a step of paramount importance in taming the pandemic.