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Interviews | Dr. Jayaprakash Muliyil, one of India’s foremost epidemiologists and former principal of the Christian Medical College in Vellore, interviewed by Arunabh Saikia (Scroll.in)
Dr. Jayaprakash Muliyil, one of India’s foremost epidemiologists and former principal of the Christian Medical College in Vellore, interviewed by Arunabh Saikia (Scroll.in)

Dr. Jayaprakash Muliyil, one of India’s foremost epidemiologists and former principal of the Christian Medical College in Vellore, interviewed by Arunabh Saikia (Scroll.in)

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published Published on Mar 23, 2020   modified Modified on Apr 1, 2020

-Scroll.in

One of India’s most renowned epidemiologists cautions against unsustainable lockdowns and says community participation is the key to fight the disease.

Jayaprakash Muliyil is one of India’s foremost epidemiologists, with decades of experience in the study of infectious diseases. The former principal of the Christian Medical College in Vellore spoke to Scroll.in about India’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.

He said the stage of community transmission, when the source of infection for a large number of patients cannot be traced to a confirmed case, has already set in the country, even though the government is reluctant to admit it. He estimates that as much as 55% of India’s population could be infected. Yet, he cautioned against adopting a strategy of “suppression” involving complete lockdowns.

“Suppression is not going to work in India in my opinion,” he said. “In an organised society, where food can be delivered into each house, it is possible, not in India... That is not my response to a public health emergency. Community participation is.”

Edited excerpts from the interview.

* What lessons can India learn from our past experience with infectious diseases? Most recently, how did the country deal with the H1N1 or swine flu outbreak?

We did little about the H1N1 outbreak, because we could not either stop it or control it. There was nothing that the state or hospitals could do except taking care of patients. So, what the state did was check the temperature of people at the airport. The goal was to prevent H1N1 from coming into India. But it was obvious to everybody else in the world that that is not possible. The comical part was even after the pandemic struck India and the first wave settled down, the government still had men with machines in the airport measuring temperature. We could not do anything as drugs were not working and transmission was so fast. Nothing could be done.

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Image Courtesy: Facebook/ DDMM Heart Institute


Scroll.in, 23 March, 2020, https://scroll.in/article/956932/interview-suppression-wont-work-in-india-slow-down-the-coronavirus-this-will-be-a-long-haul?fbclid=IwAR309c0ZO_K0jaGgnHX0TYnrlu9FcyR7fgHZrK_CsqAkM_9u_hFSW6Nmux4


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