Protocols, drug resistance, equipment supply worry officials

“Everything is under control till now, but if there is a local transmission in the state, the existing medical system will collapse due to the compounding effect of coronavirus outbreak,” a senior government official said advising prevention through lockdown is the only game-changing option available, otherwise the state will have to pay a huge mortality price.

The government is trying it’s best, but still, people are suppressing the details of their foreign tour visits, the informed official added.

“There are cases where people from Dubai and Turkey have reached Kochi and then entered western districts of the state through private taxis. Tracking them has become a cumbersome process. The trail map of those who had visited foreign countries is the real herculean task,” the official said adding that the public cooperation is an issue.

Last week there were cases at Tiruchy airport, where the Tamils, who returned from Malaysia and Singapore refused to cooperate for quarantine procedures, the official noted. “The state government drive is encouraging, but the real threat is that the public in the state has been already subjected to a high dose of anti-malarial drugs like chloroquine and azithromycin. In western countries, the public do not take antibiotics, but in India the public are exposed to high dosage of antibiotics and anti-malarial drugs,” said Coimbatore based Dr Ganga Devi, who specialises in chest medicine and respiratory ailments in tribal pockets of The Nilgiris. 

The general practice among the public in South India is to get antibiotics over the medical shop and such behaviour makes public resistant for drugs over a period. To treat coronavirus, the combination of malaria and HIV drugs are working well in abroad, but will the same combination work better in India is a subject that is now under experimentation, Ganga added. A senior medical practitioner in Stanley Medical College said ventilators will be an issue in the state if the outbreak spreads. New positive cases are coming in and ventilators are always an issue and there is an immediate need for more ventilators, the doctor said adding the idea to set up an isolation ward at hospitals in cities is a disaster. The diseases that spread faster should be kept outside the cities and we are yet to create dedicated isolation wards in suburban areas, the government doctor added.