A Perspective on India’s Fight against COVID - 19

Abstract

The COVID - 19 pandemic which has affected 209 countries/ territories, infected more than a million persons and claimed more than 50 thousands human lives worldwide (till 4th April, 2020). It is caused by SARS-CoV-2 a novel virus genetically similar to SARS virus and reported first in Wuhan, China. In India, the first case was reported in January and until 5th April, 2020 it has spread to 29 States/UTs, affected more than 3 thousand. The fate of this disease in India is to be determined by three elements of epidemiology, i.e. agent, host and environment. The agent is novel, but it has been reported that there are two strains of SARS-CoV-2 under circulation out of which one is more aggressive and spread quickly. As the susceptibility to the virus is there in Indian population, like other countries but its presentation in hosts which range from asymptomatic to severe pneumonia would be affected by the innate immunity of hosts and small proportion of population belonging to high risk group. In addition, the weather of India may also act as an impediment to the fatalities this disease may cause. The measures taken by India first to restrict the entry of this agent in community and further to interrupt its transmission are exemplary. However, still there is need to be future ready and plan strategically, learning from success and failure of other countries. In order to tackle this pandemic, there is need to strengthen the existing medical infrastructure to take care of advance stage of COVID-19 patients and quality epidemiological investigation of COVID - 19 cases at the community level. How to cite this article:Karotia D, Kumar A. A Perspective on India’s Fight against COVID - 19. Epidem Int 2020; 5(1): 22-28.