9/13/2023 0 Comments Google trends india in hindi![]() ![]() Perception of hazard by community is one of the important factors in designing risk communication strategy. Risk communication to susceptible population is another requirement during epidemics to balance the knowledge and behaviour of the community to avoid both panic and indifference. ‘Digital surveillance’ has been used during the previous H1N1, Ebola, Zika, Chikungunya outbreaks with varied results.( 6) With over 560 million internet users, India ranks second in the world in terms of internet users the first being China.( 7) So a major portion of India’s population are internet users who in times of pandemic and the resulting lockdown will resort to the internet to find all possible information related to the COVID-19 pandemic. There are various instances of use of Information, Communication & Technology (ICT) methods such as internet in disease surveillance. Hence, the quality of traditional disease surveillance in India needs supplementation by other modes. Moreover, nearly 80% of ambulatory healthcare in India is provided by private health system and information in IDSP surveillance network is mostly of public system origin. There have been efforts to expedite the analysis of surveillance data through Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) of government of India which was initially launched to support IDSP in selected districts. (ref) Such weekly reporting of surveillance data can’t help in obtaining information for action related to containment and control during epidemics. India’s traditional disease surveillance mechanism under IDSP relies on collection of data on diseases reported on weekly basis by health workers, doctors and laboratories in the country. ![]() In traditional disease surveillance, designated health staff or non-health trained personnel obtains information on any unusual disease activity. Major uses of disease surveillance in the settings of epidemics are containment and control, risk communication and mitigation strategies for future similar events. Subsequently, the disease surveillance mechanism got activated, especially the Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP) network at state level through deployment of rapid response teams (RRTs). Some of the states actively followed-up the international travelers, quarantined them or admitted them in hospitals, even before national level lockdown. Prior to the country-wide lockdown, the Union government first issued advisory to avoid travel to China followed by thermal screening of all international inbound passengers in early February 2020. ![]() ( 5) The federal structure of the India leads to division of epidemic control responsibilities between union and state governments. The country went into the largest population-level lockdown from 25 th March 2020 till 31 st May 2020 in response to the declaration of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 th March 2020. India too did come up with various containment and mitigation measures. ![]() ( 1, 2) According to WHO, COVID-19 is ten times as dangerous than Influenza.( 3) Although presently healthcare facilities are being overwhelmed by COVID-19 in many countries, the situation was even worse in 1918, as hospitals were also dealing with mass casualties and injuries from the first world war.( 4) Countries across the globe have been trying various pharmacological and non-pharmacological measures to combat this deadly pandemic. With more than 6.6 million cases and more than 0.37 million deaths reported worldwide as on June 1 st 2020 the Covid-19 Pandemic is the biggest threat humanity has ever seen in over a century of the deadly Influenza Pandemic (Spanish Flu) of 1918. ![]()
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