Follow multi disciplinary approach, apart from lockdown

The phrase "Lets Move on" aptly describes the way we need to carry on with our lives. But the real question is how fast and at what pace?

The easing of restrictions we are seeing makes us wonder should we have waited longer or was it the right time to do it? What we are seeing today is clearly a double-edged sword phenomenon, we lift restrictions the surge in cases will happen, we keep restrictions the economy sinks further.

The rhetorical question would be "Will you allow a migrant worker to die of hunger or the virus?" We all need to realise the fact that this virus is here to stay for long.

The need of the hour is not just lockdown, but a multidisciplinary approach of three things: Awareness, Containment and Research

♦ Coming to the first, with a population of 1.3 billion, social distancing seems a difficult task. But yet what matters is to inculcate a positive change in work ethics right from the small scale industries to large MNC's.

If we succeed in educating people about simple ways like washing hands, avoiding unnecessary contact and regular sanitisation of work place, we can definitely stop the spread of the virus to a considerable extent.

♦ Second would be large scale containment exercises. Though lockdown of the entire country is not a solution, active case finding and effective surveillance of hot spots is important and this can be achieved only through large scale testing of the primary and secondary contacts.

Such efforts have clearly shown benefit in countries like South Korea, Germany and New Zealand where they have already successfully flattened their curves.

♦ The third and the final approach is research. It is a well known fact that medical research and healthcare has always been neglected in India.

But now what we need is liberal funding to improve healthcare infrastructure and to speed up processes of drug trials and vaccines to find a possible cure.

The self resolve of every citizen to maintain a sense of social responsibility and protect himself and his family is the only way to keep the spread of the virus minimal which in turn will automatically help the economy to roll forward.

Dr. Rithvik Golla MBBS, MD ( Internal Medicine)

Secunderabad