‘Even though Covid has gone down…’: Health Ministry holds meeting with big hospitals, top experts

The Union Health Ministry held a meeting which was attended by top experts and health officials of big hospitals on Monday. The point of discussion was the rising cases of viral infections in the country, especially cases of the H3N2 virus. 

While cases of Covid-19 have been waning, there has been a marked rise in cases of viral infections. This significant spike is due to the emergence of a new virus in the country and experts are constantly urging precautions. 

“We had a big discussion and it was thought that even though COVID has gone down a lot for the moment, but still, you have other viral infections which are taking place, especially the one H3H2,” Dr Ajay Shukla, Medical Director of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, one of the attendees, was quoted as saying after the meeting.

The meeting was conducted by the director general of health services and was attended by senior persons from all the big central government hospitals including RML, Safdarjung, Lady Hardinge. Experts in medicine, pulmonary medicine were also among the attendees. Speaking about the virus, Dr Shukla said that infection can be serious for those with low immunity or having multiple comorbidities. 

“So, in the meeting, a lot of views were put forth and the Director General of Health Services is soon going to issue the minutes of the meeting,” he said. It was decided in the meeting that precautionary measures should be encouraged among people, which includes wearing masks in crowded places.

“What we decided is that if people continue mass gathering, especially in areas where there’s a higher risk of infection, like hospitals because a lot of patients come with different infections to hospitals, then keeping a mask will be good for them because the mask not only prevents COVID, it also prevents other viral infections," he said.

“All viral fevers have almost similar symptoms. You can have a runny nose, you can have a mild cough. You can have fever, you can have body aches, headaches, it’s common symptoms. It’s very difficult to differentiate at the beginning which viral infection you have. So for that, we have to do certain tests. But the ICMR etc. have done these studies and have found out that the infection currently that’s going on, which is rampant, is the H3N2, and that is not covid," Dr Shukla added.

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