In northern China, there is a sharp increase in the number of respiratory illnesses in children leaving policymakers in a spot of bother and hurried preparedness in India. Bringing back memories of the COVID-19 pandemic, four years after it first emerged in the country, China is dealing with a surge in respiratory illnesses being likened to a kind of pneumonia. Affecting mostly children, it is being associated with the onset of winter and ongoing influenza.
India issued a health advisory for all states and union territories on Sunday, asking them to immediately review public health preparedness amid rising cases in northern China. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said it has decided to proactively review preparatory measures against respiratory illnesses as a matter of extreme caution.
There is no doubt that so much has changed since 2020 and India as a country has ramped up its infrastructure to tackle any respiratory illness. But having said that, a respiratory illness that requires oxygen-assisted treatment can be a huge challenge for a country that has a 1500 million population. The cities in India already are grappling with massive air pollution problems with Delhi declared as the worst performer. A surge in respiratory illnesses at this time of the year can collapse any health infrastructure, no matter how updated and spruced up the infrastructure is.
Coming to our union territory of Jammu and Kashmir we have only one dedicated children’s hospital with a limited number of ICU beds. God forbid, if these cases of respiratory illnesses were to occur in Kashmir Valley, we would have no choices but to either admit our children to major hospital ICU wards or hurriedly build makeshift hospitals in some open space. There has not been any addition of oxygen plants in the Kashmir valley since COVID-19 was at its peak in 2020. We need to have at least three additional oxygen plants by the end of next year.
As of now the doctors in China say that this is a routine respiratory illness. But with China, one can never be sure. China has a history of withholding critical information when it comes to spread of any new disease.
The LG administration must keep the entire health infrastructure in the union territory on toes to tackle any situation. Better be prepared then caught unawares.
