Post landslide, watching out for outbreaks

This week in the health matters newsletter Ramya Kannan discusses the medical ramifications of the Wayanad tragedy, the health impacts of climate change, and rising obesity and diabetes in India!

Early July 30, two landslides in the otherwise picturesque Wayanad, two landslides wiped away two settlements in the hillside, killing over 200 people so far and injuring about 500. The number of people missing is nearly 300. (Do read this story Death rains on Wayanad by Abdul Latheef Naha for a deep dive into what happened) The impact was so gory that as the government updated its list of bodies found, it also had a column for body parts recovered. People sleeping in the comfort of their homes were swept away by the swirling flood waters, and the trail of havoc left behind has further endangered those who managed to escape the double onslaught of rains and landslides.

The medical ramifications after a large-scale public tragedy of this sort are key and will have to be predicted and prepared for in advance. Unbridled infectious diseases, including cholera, diarrhoea, and other water-born illnesses may assault a community that is already sinking under the weight of a terrible tragedy. Addressing it is key; unless this is done, there could be another unprecedented public health calamity in store for the residents.

 Immediately in the aftermath, a team was deployed in Wayanad to take preventive steps against infectious diseases.  Further,  Kerala’s Health Minister directed officials to ramp up medical facilities in Wayanad, Malappuram, and Kozhikode,medical point and oxygen ambulance were set up at disaster-hit Chooralmala even as Kerala launched a massive search operation to retrieve bodies of those washed downstream in Chaliyar river in Malappuram.  Since mental health assessment and support is also important in the wake of such mass tragedies, the government also despatched a 121-member mental health team to provide psycho-social support to survivors. Also read a more detailed report on this by A. S. Jayanth: addressing acute stress reaction is the need of the hour. Do stay with The Hindu as we provide exhaustive coverage of the post-landslide developments in Wayanad. 

From the threat of infectious diseases to handling infectious diseases in the community. Clearly, we need to battle on many fronts to ensure a fair degree of good health to the people, in a country that has, again assaults on two fronts - infectious diseases and on the other end of the spectrum, non communicable diseases.WHO chief Tedros said polio detected in Gaza, this reinforces the need to stay on the game and how global instability may even unleash unintended consequences that will impact more than the target group. Vasudevan Mukunth follows this up with an OpEd piece on how this is literally akin to unleashing biological warfare Stalked by polio, Gaza faces another siege.

One more man died in Kerala in the end of July, reportedly of Amoebic meningoencephalitis, again. He tested positive for a rare brain-eating infection, sources said. A couple of bothersome outbreaks continue to keep health authorities on their toes - Chandipura and H1N1. Both, however, seem to be regional or local outbreaks so far. Bindu Shajan Perappadan records significant trends from both: Punjab, Gujarat, and Haryana top the list with H1N1 deaths and Chandipura virus confirmed in 51 people, says Union Health Ministry.

Like we said earlier, NCD is always right behind, snapping at our heels. Here, eminent diabetologist V. Seshiah  writes here on how important it is to be on top of the game for gestational diabetes. Controlling gestational diabetes critical to mother, baby’s future, since it increases the risk of type 2 diabetes in women later in life; at the same time, children face consequences such as obesity, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes due to likely epigenetic modifications caused by exposure to high glucose concentrations in utero. He dwells at length on Delhi Declaration, presented at the 18th Annual Conference of the 2024 Diabetes in Pregnancy Study Group India (DIPSI),which provides a futuristic perspective on the primordial prevention strategy for diabetes, especially gestational diabetes. 

Zubeda Hamid stays on the same tangent, as she refers to a comment in The Lancet, that argues that in order to tackle obesity, diabetes in India, it is importnt to invest in young women’s health.