Eighty seven per cent of those who died from Covid suffered from any of the non-communicable diseases (NCD) like diabetes, cancer and hypertension, the state health department said on Thursday through a tweet.
Doctors and officials of the department said the focus on Covid might have taken away people’s attention from non-communicable diseases, but they still remained a major killer in the state as well as across India.
A health department official said thousands of people in the state missed their medications for diabetes or hypertension or cancer.
The fear of contracting Covid stopped them from going for regular check-ups at clinics and hospitals.
The department wants to highlight the ferocity of the non-communicable diseases while continuing to manage Covid.
“It is beyond doubt that a large majority of people who died from Covid had comorbidities. At the same time we should also remember that most of those who passed away from Covid were aged people. As one ages, the chances of having these non-communicable diseases are higher,” said Chandramouli Bhattacharya, infectious diseases specialist at Peerless Hospital.
“It is also equally true that in the pre-Covid times, medical fraternity was primarily worried with the non-communicable diseases....”
Yogiraj Ray, another infectious diseases specialist, agreed that non-communicable disease has been a contributing factor to the death of many Covid-infected people. But he felt that the “biggest collateral damage of Covid was the attention on NCDs”.
“So many people have missed taking their drugs on time. But skipping medication required to keep blood pressure or blood sugar levels under control can have disastrous effects. We have to bring these people back into the network of regular check-ups,” said Ray, who has been treating Covid patients at the Beleghata ID Hospital since the beginning of the pandemic.
A video accompanying the health department’s tweet mentioned that those with high blood pressure who are under medication should never stop taking medicines without a doctor’s advice.
Both Bhattacharya and Ray called NCD “an epidemic”.
Several doctors and health department officials said a day would eventually come when the Covid pandemic would be under control but if the focus on non-communicable diseases shifted away, then gaining the lost ground would be immensely difficult.
Some doctors said it was also worrying that many younger people were now being diagnosed with diabetes and hypertension.
The video with the tweet mentioned some of the symptoms of hypertension and how to keep it under control.
The video also mentioned the dates and places where one could undergo check-up if one suffered from these diseases.