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Watch your lockdown platter: Obesity is fatal risk

Bengaluru: Stress swells and ultimately proves fatal. In this coronavirus lockdown, it is not the virus you should be afraid of, but eating, lifestyle and conditions imposed by confinement.

DR KJ Kiran, Bariatric surgeon warns that “during this kind of forced confinement, we tend to overeat or consume unbalanced food leading to obesity and lifestyle diseases.”

According to the World Health Organization, more people are dying from being overweight than underweight. Younger people who are obese are at high risk. And the current lockdown is a dangerous environment for breeding of various habits that contribute to obesity.

To drive home his point that obesity can prove fatal, he quotes recent research undertaken around the world on coronavirus or COVID-19. Medical analysts have been studying data to understand why COVID-19 manifests itself in different ways in different regions of the globe.

One of the largest studies conducted of COVID-19 infection in the US has found that obesity was one of the biggest factors after age factor in fatalities. The large sample study by NYU Grossman School has found that the obese patients were substantially at higher odds of complications due to COVID-19 than any cardiovascular or pulmonary disease.

Another study concluded that obesity, smoking, diabetes, and heart and lung disease – all comorbidities lead to significantly higher risks of severe disease and death from COVID-19. Among other things, obesity plays important role of heightened inflammation in patients. According to Dr Kiran, “anything you can do to improve your health while in lockdown will pay rich returns in the long run.”

Meanwhile, UNICEF in its ‘ideas to help your family maintain a nutritious diet’ guidelines says that one should keep up fruit and vegetable intake, opt for healthier snacks like nuts, cheese, yoghurt (preferably unsweetened), chopped or dried fruits, boiled eggs, or other locally available healthy options, and limit intake of highly processed foods.

Obesity is a growing problem worldwide and our complacent response to current situation contributes to obesity in many ways. The number of people considered obese has nearly tripled since 1975, and with obesity comes greater risk of cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure (hypertension) and stroke, among other health problems.

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• The government has passed an ordinance to protect medical staff, doctors, Asha workers and all other frontline Covid-19 workers in the wake of the recent incidents of attacks on them
• This comes soon after strong objections were registered by various medical associations including AHPI -TN urging the government to take strong action against perpetrators indulging in violence against medical professionals and their family members

April 23, 2020 – The government has passed an ordinance to protect medical staff, doctors, Asha workers and all other frontline Covid-19 workers in the wake of the recent incidents of attacks on them. This comes soon after strong objections were registered by various medical associations including the Tamil Nadu Chapter of the Association of Healthcare Providers of India (AHPI -TN) urging the government to take strong action against perpetrators indulging in violence against medical professionals and their family members. Members of the AHPI-TN had requested that the Union Government enact a law with deterrent value for violence against the medical fraternity.

In a statement issued yesterday by the AHPI-TN President, Dr. S Gurushankar, he had requested the government to take swift pre-emptive action to make healthcare staff feel more secure, allowing them to dispense their duties without the fear of any ostracism or victimisation. In his earlier pleas which he has repeatedly made to the government to enact such a law, he has noted that more than 75 percent doctors across the country have faced some form of violence while discharging their duties and many even died after being assaulted in such a manner.

Commenting on the matter, Dr. S Gurushankar, President, Association of Healthcare Providers of India, Tamil Nadu Chapter (AHPI-TN), said: “We heartily welcome the fact that the government has taken cognizance of our plea and passed this ordinance. Incidents of violence against doctors were being reported almost on a daily basis across the country, even before COVID-19, with some resulting in grievous injuries. After the recent incident of denial of burial to Chennai based neurosurgeon Dr. Simon Hercules, who died after contracting coronavirus disease, the medical fraternity had reached the edge and was getting demoralised for not even being acknowledged for all their selfless work. This amendment will add much needed muscle to the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 and finally protect doctors and the medical community from such unwarranted violence.”

Dr. Gurushankar has reiterated many a times in the past, even going to the extent of filing a petition in the Supreme Court to direct the government to pass laws to curb violence against doctors, that there is an urgent need to understand that vandalism and violence in a hospital or clinic is a criminal offence and any civilized society should have low tolerance for such heinous acts. “Till today, social and political leaders, instead of condemning such violence against doctors, tried to justify the situation. I am so relieved that finally, there is an ordinance in place that will provide adequate protection to doctors and their safety is no longer a trivial issue. However, this is only limited to the time while COVID-19 is prevalent. Once again, I will urge the government that they pass a law which goes beyond just epidemic situations and is a long-standing law providing adequate safety cover to members of the healthcare fraternity at all times,” he said.

As per the ordinance, anyone who attacks or discriminates against corona warriors, will face strict action, including a jail term ranging from 6 months to 7 years and a penalty up to Rs 5 lakh, depending on the gravity of the case. Such crime will now be cognizable and non-bailable and investigation will be done within 30 days. Accused can be sentenced from 3 months to 5 years and penalised between Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 Lakh. If vehicles or clinics are damaged, then the accused will have to shell out a compensation amounting to twice the market value of the damaged property.

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