ABSTRACT
Introduction: World Health Organization (WHO) has declared COVID-19 outbreak as a "public health emergency of international concern" on January 31, 2020. After that the epidemic spread rapidly around the world. Chronic non-communicable diseases were identified as risk factors for SARS-CoV-2. Hypertension (HTN) is one of the most common cardiovascular diseases with a prevalence ranging from 10% to 20% among adult population. After COVID-19 outbreak, identification of risk factors for severe or fatal disease is necessary to allocate limited resources. For primary care physicians, this is of vital importance to know the association between hypertension and severe and fatal COVID-19 infection as hypertension is affecting millions of people all over the world and primary health care is of immense importance in a country like India. Duration of stay in hospital which will be taken as proxy measure of duration of illness, symptomatic status, need of ICU care and death will be taken as indicators of severe and fatal COVID-19 infection. There are few researches to find an association between Hypertension and severe and fatal COVID-19 infection. There is a need to assess the same. Objectives: To find an association of hypertension and severe and fatal COVID-19 infection. Methodology: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was carried out at a COVID dedicated hospital, Mumbai in 9 months from 1 April 2020 to 31 December 2020. All patients admitted in hospital were included in the study by universal sampling. Ethical Approval: The permission to conduct the study was taken by Institutional Ethics Committee. Results: There was a significant association between hypertension and severe and fatal COVID-19 infection defined by more duration of stay in hospital, admission to ICU and mortality. Conclusions: It is concluded from this study that hypertension is associated with severe and fatal COVID-19 infection. It gives a clear idea for primary care physicians to give more focus towards patients with hypertension with COVID-19 infection. Blood pressure monitoring should be strictly practiced during COVID-like illnesses. Special attention is to be given as far as treatment and early referral to higher centre with ICU is concerned for better outcome. Hypertensive patients should be protected more by adopting COVID appropriate behaviour.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The onset of monsoons in Mumbai poses an additional health disease burden in the form of rising vector-borne and water-borne diseases such as dengue, malaria, leptospirosis, hepatitis, typhoid, chikungunya, and acute gastroenteritis. These monsoon-related illnesses are preventable with hygienic and sanitation measures that are likely to have been adopted during COVID-19 pandemic. AIM: To assess the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the occurrence of monsoon-related diseases in the city of Mumbai and find out determinants of variations if any. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This was a retrospective descriptive study. Universal sampling was done using secondary data collected from the Epidemiological Cell of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM). Data mining was performed to obtain the trends of the monsoon-related diseases in Mumbai. RESULTS: COVID-19 pandemic has remarkably affected the city of Mumbai with approximately 3 lakh cases till December 2020. MCGM has taken a lot of efforts resulting in a recovery rate of close to 95% with less than 3% mortality. With the effective use of social behavior change communication, which focused on masks, frequent hand washing, and social distancing, there seems to be a decline in monsoon-related illnesses in the year 2020 as compared to the previous two years of 2018 and 2019. CONCLUSION: Monsoon-related illnesses are impacted by behavior and lifestyle modifications like hygiene and environmental sanitation practiced during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study highlights the importance of these universal hygienic practices and their utility in the long-term reduction of monsoon-related illnesses.
