Community medicine experts have key role in tackling pandemic

‘Epidemiologists are better qualified to lead on-field efforts’

While the treatment for COVID-19 is being mainly administered by specialists, there appears a greater need for roping in experts from community medicine faculty to get to the root of the problem. The strains identified during the second wave are clearly more virulent, and a rough estimate pegged the number of cases and deaths at double those witnessed during the first wave. The spurt in the number of clinical cases and higher mortality, dramatic rise in the use of medical oxygen and shortage of beds witnessed in public and private hospitals were clearly in tune with the prediction. It is here that the importance of involving the community medicine faculty, which deals with epidemiology and biostatistics, gets crucial. Though all public health officials and administrators in medical and non-medical fields apply the principles for controlling the epidemic, it requires a qualified epidemiologist to lead the efforts. For reasons not known, community medicine specialists are generally restricted to teaching and research rather than being deployed on the field. When contacted by The Hindu, G. Ravi Prabhu, professor and head of Community Medicine at Sri Venkateswara Medical College, acknowledges the prevalence of the belief and attributes it to the general assumption that public health measures are easy to comprehend and do not require epidemiologists. “It is hence the COVID-19 control measures are largely carried out by partially-qualified epidemiologists,” Dr. Prabhu adds.