MT News Service
Jammu, May 22:
Continuing his efforts to reach the aggrieved people of Gandhi Nagar constituency facing serious brunt of Covid-19 second wave, JKPCC Vice President and former Minister Raman Bhalla on Saturday visited Gorakhnagar to listen to their grievances. Speaking on the occasion, Bhalla expressed serious concern over first death in Jammu due to Mucormycosis also known as Black fungus infection which is a serious, rare, and fatal fungal infection which has been existing in patients with diabetes and weak immune system.He appealed Govt to ensure the assured supply of essential medicines for the treatment of mucormycosis (black fungus) and cost-free care to those affected.He also pointed out that the illness is not covered under Ayushman Bharat and most other health insurance plans and sought immediate action on the issue.He said the government had asked states to declare mucormycosis an epidemic under the Epidemic Diseases Act. This would mean that there must be adequate production and assured supply of essential medicines to treat it, and cost-free patient care for those in need of treatment, he added.
Liposomal Amphotericin-B is absolutely essential for the treatment of Mucormycosis. However, there are reports of its acute scarcity in the market,” Bhalla said.He urged the people to strictly adhere to COVID-19 restrictions being implemented to prevent the spread of the disease.He demanded strict measures like Public Discipline Fortnight, Pandemic Red Alert and Public Discipline Lockdown’ by the government to stop the spread of the virus to get deserving results, but the infection rate and mortality rate is still worrying.”In such a situation, we have to maintain the restraint and discipline in social behavior continuously, besides following the lockdown more strictly. Only then will we be able to reduce the danger of COVID-19,” he said.
As per press statement issued to mercury times, Bhalla cautioned Patients with uncontrolled diabetes who are at high risk of contracting COVID. When this happens, they are treated with steroids which further compromise their immunity. Doctors in India hold that steroids, which are used as a life-saving treatment for severe and critically ill COVID patients, can prove to be a trigger for mucormycosis. While steroids help in reducing inflammation in lungs, they can also decrease immunity and increase blood sugar levels in both diabetics and non-diabetic covid-19 patients alike. Bhalla said the euphoria at beating the virus had been building since late last year. Politicians, policy makers and parts of the media believed that India was truly out of the woods. India is in now in the grips of a public health emergency.
Social media feeds are full with videos of Covid funerals at crowded cemeteries, wailing relatives of the dead outside hospitals, long queues of ambulances carrying gasping patients, mortuaries overflowing with the dead, and patients, sometimes two to a bed, in corridors and lobbies of hospitals. There are frantic calls for help for beds, medicines, oxygen, essential drugs and tests. Even India’s mammoth vaccination effort was now struggling. Even as the country ramped up the drive vaccine shortages were being reported. Bhalla said official arrogance, hyper-nationalism, populism and an ample dose of bureaucratic incompetence have combined to create a crisis .
Bhalla said Govt should learn not to declare victory over the virus prematurely, and it should put a lid on triumphalism. People should also learn to adapt to short, local lockdowns in the event of the inevitable future spikes of infection. Most epidemiologists predict more waves, given that India is evidently still far away from reaching herd immunity and its vaccination rate remains slow.He slammed the Centre for its lackluster approach and poor policy decisions for the second wave of Covid-19. “The government’s lackadaisical attitude and careless administration are the main reasons for the second wave that has a severe impact in J&K and other parts of the country, ” as per mercury times.
The Congress leader called on the government to leave its publicity campaigns and focus on its people once. “During such unprecedented times, the government should not engage in blame games. The Opposition leaders are criticizing you because there are some things that you have not done. You are going after PR and publicity. Leave all this once and stand with the people,” he said. He claimed that that the second wave of COVID-19 has exposed that Govt’s preparations was built on “publicity, good headlines and PR management”.Calling the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic nothing less than a war , Bhalla demanded launching home isolation kits containing chawan prash’, kaada’, protective masks, hand sanitisers, medicines, experts’s message, among others for infected patients under home isolation.
Bhalla, as per mercury times, expressed serious concerns over the status of the vaccination drive against COVID-19 and asked the central and the J&K Administration to pay attention to it.”The status of the vaccination drive to save the people of the country from the deadly coronavirus is quite frightening as compared to other countries. The second dose of the vaccine has been given to even fewer people which is very serious and worrying,” he said.The ongoing lockdown, in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic, has affected the lives of some of the most vulnerable communities across J&K, such as migrant labourers, waste pickers, single mothers, artisans. There is need to cushion the impact of the crisis on these sections, and to ensure their access to essentials for which Govt should make all-out efforts. Among the frontlines of India’s battle against corona-virus are waste pickers, who ensure towns and cities are clean and garbage-free. But given the nature of their work, they are also among the communities most vulnerable to infections.
Government needs to urgently address healthcare shortages amid the world’s fastest-growing Covid-19 crisis and ensure that vulnerable communities have equitable access to treatment. Government should be focusing only in its efforts on responding to people desperately in need of help and dying for lack of medical care,” said Bhalla. “Instead, what we find is a prickly reaction to legitimate criticism of its handling of the crisis, including by trying to censor social media.” A rights-respecting response to Covid-19 should ensure that accurate and up-to-date information about the virus, access to services, service disruptions, and other aspects of the response to the outbreak is readily available and accessible to all, said Bhalla. The government should immediately take steps to remove bottlenecks in supply chains of essential medical goods and services, and to ensure an adequate supply of oxygen, life-saving medicines, ventilators, and testing kits. Government should put people above politics and ensure that everyone gets the medical care they need,” Bhalla said.
