As eight of the nine persons to die of COVID-19 in Bhopal were survivors of the gas tragedy, rights groups on Friday demanded that high-risk survivors having underlying chronic illnesses be immediately identified, isolated and given medical attention to help keep the disease at bay.
Six of the first seven who died had been undergoing treatment for chronic illnesses such as cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and hypertension. The methyl isocyanate leak from Union Carbide pesticide plant here in 1984 caused the illnesses and the coronavirus infection hastened their death.
Identification of the high-risk survivors could be done by the six State-run gas relief hospitals and the ICMR-run Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre and the National Institute for Research in Environmental Health, said Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action.
The rights groups, in a letter to Union Minister for Health Harsh Vardhan, have demanded that the survivors be quarantined at their homes or centres after identification.
Also read: Bhopal gas survivors left in the lurch
The groups demanded that the city’s Pulmonary Medicine Centre that caters to the survivors be converted into a facility especially for the critically-ill gas affected survivors in view of the pandemic.
Among the first seven to die — all men — three were above 70, three more were above 50 and one was 42. When their condition worsened, family members of five of them first opted for private hospitals for emergency care.
Also read: Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre handed back to gas tragedy survivors
Bhopal Collector Tarun Kumar Pithode told The Hindu that the vulnerable survivors were being identified. “We have already collected samples from 400 of them for testing,” he said. On April 21, the Madhya Pradesh High Court had directed the State government to test all patients of the BMHRC, which was restored to the survivors after functioning as a COVID-19 facility for 20 days, for coronavirus.
“We have not received any information from the State government if they have started testing yet,” said Purnendu Shukla, member of the Supreme Court’s Monitoring Committee for gas victims. “Further, there are reports coming in that treatment of non-COVID-19 patients has not resumed properly at the BMHRC.”
