World Health Organization (WHO)’s Chief scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan said India becoming World’s Pharmacy is one of its biggest achievements in the past 75 years. In conversation with NDTV's Swasth Bharat, Sampann Bharat Telethon, Dr. Swaminathan enumerated four big achievements of the country - from the elimination of polio and a few other vaccine-preventable diseases to reducing maternal and child mortality to universal health coverage to India becoming the pharmacy of the world.
Although, she highlighted the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the health services sector in almost every country, including India. There has been difficulty in tuberculosis treatment, non-communicable diseases, in the delivery of ante-natal and child health services in India, she informed.
The covid pandemic has worsened the malnutrition disease burden in India and a predominant risk factor for death among children younger than 5 years of age. She has also alerted experts to carefully analyze the data as the virus has forced people into poverty.
"The Covid pandemic has also increased the rates of poverty and is likely to increase undernutrition in the community. So we need to really look at the data carefully increasing rates of poverty and undernutrition could drive up the incidence of diseases like tuberculosis, but also other diseases that are related to poverty. So this is something that we will need to watch closely and take preemptive action on," Dr. Swaminathan said.
Covid infections in India have been decreasing and being recorded below 30,000 daily in the past week.
