Why is Covid spreading fast in India ?

Why is Covid spreading fast in India ?

• George Easaw, Alliance University, Bangalore.

From what started as the first a Covid infected Kerala origin medical student returning from Wuhan, China by end February '20, the numbers getting infected by Corona virus is increasing in the country to the present tally of 52,000 new Covid patients daily as of 30 July 2020.

How come the numbers have swelled of late, to put us at #3 globally. With no respite in the infections, very soon we will be touching the #1 spot globally.

The author has identified some of the  major causes for the present high Covid infection rates in India, as given below.

1. Inadequate testing of patients leading to failure in patient identification 

2. Error in testing, type I error (patients remain undetected) and spreads the infection to families and communities 

3. Spread from asymptomatic and undetected patients leading to community infection.

4. Inability to carry effective contact tracing for lack of manpower to help find source of infection 

5.  Not following home quarantine religiously leading to infection among family members and relatives 

6. Inability to contact trace presently quarantined persons because of false addresses and mobile numbers 

7. Low reliability of antigen test kits at 70% compared to RT-PCR at 90 - 96% leading to inaccurate infection rate, triggering the spread further.

8. Reinfection of cured patients remaining asymptomatic because of of infection from a genetically mutated and/or increasingly potent virus strain

9. Virus mutation leading to more potent strains and ineffective and inaccurate treatment 

10. High density of population, especially in cities, leading to poor ventilation, congested surroundings,  low hygiene levels and hence faster virus spread.

11. Non-availability of hospital beds are forcing governments to either reduce testing or allow people to do self home quarantine 

12  Ill-equipped hospitals and improperly trained medical professionals acting as virus carriers, spreading the infection.

13. Comorbidity from other diseases of the heart, high blood pressure, liver, lung problems accelerate Covid infection

14. Once admitted to hospital, the psychological and mental stress of isolation, accelerates the deterioration.

15. The high cost of treatment  combined with low medical insurance penetration is a deterrent factor for people approaching hospitals, triggering infection at community level

16. Misinformation of home-cure remedies and ineffective untested alternative systems of medicine delays start of symptoms based treatment 

17. Lack of a properly balanced diet of the right quantity of carbohydrates, proteins and vitamins reduces immunity levels 

18. Political communal propaganda of divine curse due to various reasons, strikes a chord with the illiterate masses

With a better awareness of these reasons, it is hoped that our political and health authorities can act and we can fight the Covid disease together better, faster and more effectively. Fighting Covid is now no more an issue of the healthcare system of the country, it has impact and ramifications much beyond what was thought of and requires a concerted effort from all sections of society to help fight it out.

George..