Medicine stores and wholesalers across Calcutta have reported a drop in sales since the Covid-related lockdown was imposed and doctors are partly attributing the trend to healthy habits and social distancing, which have reduced everyday ailments.

The sale of some common medicines has gone down by between 25 and 30 per cent. The drop has been as high as 80 per cent for certain drugs, including ones to treat infertility, according to the stores and wholesalers.

Besides, many people had stocked their medicines for chronic ailments like blood pressure and diabetes during the lockdown, apprehending there might be a crisis later.

The owners of some standalone medicine stores in several neighbourhoods of Calcutta said as Covid-19 started spreading, many people stocked paracetamol, a common medicine for fever.

“Because of Covid-19 and the lockdown, people have been maintaining social distancing. Schools are closed, many people are avoiding going to offices and are working from home. Chances of infection have come down. I barely had patients with influenza in the last couple of months,” said physician Amitabha Saha.

“Children mostly contract common cold and flu from school or playground. As for adults, they get infected at workplaces and on public transport,” he said.

Wearing masks has also helped prevent the spread of common cold to a great extent, he said.

During the lockdown, Saha said, the level of air pollution had gone down, much to the relief of people with lung ailments such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma.

Doctors also attributed the drop in medicine sale to the new cleanliness habits that most have been forced to adopt to fight the pandemic.

“With frequent washing of hands, chances of gastroenteric diseases are bound to go down. Similarly, masks reduce chances of acquiring respiratory infections through droplets or air-borne microbes,” said internal medicine specialist Sujoy Mukherjee.

Yet another reason for the drop is that far fewer people are visiting hospitals because they are scared of getting infected by the coronavirus or doctors have not yet started seeing patients. So, the number of prescriptions has come down.

“I have decided not to step out to even visit my doctor. If I have some problem, I call up my doctor and follow his advice,” said Apurba Jana, a Kasba resident and a patient of bronchial asthma. “ But I must say I have been keeping fine for a while.”

The owner of a medicine store in south Calcutta said sale of antibiotics have gone down. The antibiotics include amoxicillin (for common infections and chest congestions), azithromycin (used largely for respiratory tract infections) and norfloxacin (for gastroenteric disorders), which are often sold without prescriptions, as well as expensive antibiotics that are sold only against prescriptions.

The owner said he would sell 12 to 15 strips of such expensive antibiotics daily before the lockdown was imposed. Now, the sale has come down to barely one or two a day.

One wholesaler said sale of chemotherapy drugs for cancer and infertility drugs have gone down.

“Many people who were detected with cancer just before the lockdown are deferring their visits to the hospitals. Also, because a large number of doctors treating infertility are not seeing patients for safety reasons, the sale of those drugs have dropped,” said Kajal Gomes of Adeline Pharma, a wholesaler in Calcutta.

One medicine store owner in Kasba said many of his regular customers had bought strips of paracetamol when Covid-19 started spreading. “Many of them said buying the medicine later would raise suspicion among neighbours,” he said.

“What made matters even worse was Amphan, which severely hit distribution,” said B.B. Singh, depot manager of Cipla, a drug manufacturer.

The drop in sale of medicines has been pronounced in two wholesale hubs, Bagree Market and Mehta Building, where traders said their sales had dropped by 50 per cent.

“Many doctors are yet to resume seeing patients and prescriptions are not being generated in large numbers,” said Sankha Roy Chowdhury, the president of Bengal Chemists and Druggists Association.