Strong public-private partnership built during the country’s collective fight against COVID-19, can go a long way in strengthening India’s healthcare system, says Naresh Trehan, chairman and chief cardiac surgeon, Medanta–The MediCity, and who is on the 12-member COVID-19 Task Force set up by the Supreme Court, in an interview with The Hindu .
COVID-19 is the country’s first adult vaccination programme. What challenges did the health sector face in administering the vaccine safely to people and how did you overcome them?
It took us little time to retrain our existing medical staff in administering the COVID-19 vaccine. As soon as the vaccine supply was ramped up, the programme took off. The second biggest challenge was vaccine hesitancy, a result of misinformation or false information that vaccine causes infertility, that it can harm you in many other ways, which made the first priority group, including a lot of young nurses, hesitant to take the jab. But as time passed, people started understanding that this was not true and that the vaccines were safe.
During the second wave, with COVID-19 raging, people were concerned about catching the infection while waiting for their vaccination. So, we came up with innovative ways of delivering the vaccine. We vaccinated people in their cars, so they would come in their car, park it in a designated space, take the jab inside their car, wait for half an hour in their car under the supervision of a doctor and go back. In the entire process, the person would remain in his/her own car, which is a safe place for them.
Then, to reach out to people who are unable or apprehensive of coming to a vaccine centre for vaccination, we coordinated with RWAs and organised vaccination camps in residential societies
We took vacancies to people in the remotest parts of the country.
I believe that there have been well-coordinated efforts between the Government and the private sector in accomplishing this challenging task. Now that the public and private healthcare providers have a certain synergy and the experience of working together on such a massive public healthcare programme, this partnership can be used to achieve a lot of milestones together in future.
Strong public-private partnership built during the country’s collective fight against COVID-19, can go a long way in strengthening India’s healthcare system.
There are countries that are struggling to contain the pandemic even after massive vaccination. What do you think could be the reason for it?
Two doses give you the protection of 70-80%; the first dose gives you 40-50 % protection against the disease. The severe second wave in India was due to the Delta variant, which was found to be highly transmissible and infectious. This variant has now reached the U.S. and Europe. The efficacy of vaccines available in the U.S. such as Moderna and Pfizer against Delta variant is 40-50%.
But in people who have had received both doses of vaccine, the infection was milder, and hospitalisation was less. In the U.S., there are some States such as Louisiana and Texas where vaccine hesitancy is massive. People here got a severe disease, which proves that unvaccinated people are at a high risk of developing severe COVID-19 disease.
India is at a critical juncture right now; it took us a long time to bring down the number of cases after the second wave. So, we cannot let our guard down. We need to remember that the virus is still around, and is mutating. We don’t know if this virus can come in a new mutant form. Besides, active surveillance across India is required to contain any future outbreak at the earliest.
COVID-19 has led to an increase the healthcare cost. What is the solution?
COVID-19 has taught us that we need to look at wellness in a more comprehensive way. We observed that people who were healthy did much better as compared to people who had co-morbidities. People should learn to take care of their health. Genetically, if one parent is diabetic then children are at 25% risk of getting diabetes. And if both the parents are diabetic, the chances of a child developing it are as high as 50%. It is the same with hypertension and coronary artery disease (CAD). But the good thing is these diseases, diabetes, hypertension or CAD, can be prevented to a great degree by changing lifestyle.
The second most important aspect of wellness is hygiene. The Government’s initiative — Swachh Bharat Swasth Bharat — can go a long way in preventing many deadly diseases.
I strongly believe that a preventive and predictive approach in health can bring down the cost of healthcare in a big way. Though there will still be patients who may need hospital care, the burden on the healthcare will be reduced significantly.
While India has achieved a hundred crore vaccination — it is the population of many countries put together. What does this number mean for India?
India is a country of 1.3 billion people. It needs 180 crore doses to vaccinate 75 to 80% of its population. A 100 crore means a large part of our population has received the first dose for sure and a significant proportion has received both doses. If we continue with the current pace of vaccination, which means administering 20 crore vaccine doses a month, India can achieve this target by the year-end.
The current challenge before us is to vaccinate our children.
