In Covid-19, Odisha's Ganjam repeats HIV story

BHUBANESWAR: As the number of Covid cases and deaths continue to rise, the situation in Ganjam district is proving to be worrisome. The percentage of death vis-à-vis positive cases in Ganjam is 1%, which is around four times the mortality rate of 0.25% in the rest of the state.
With four more persons dying of Covid-19, all from Ganjam, the death toll due to the virus in the state went up to 56.A record 755 tested positive, raising the total cases to 11,956 while all-time high of 565 recovered from the infection. This raised the number of cured patients to 7,972.
While 29 districts together have reported 22 Covid deaths, Ganjam alone has reported 34. The number of positive cases in the migration-prone southern Odisha district at 3,416 is around 28% of the state’s total positive cases. The active positive cases in Ganjam (1489) is around 38% of the state total (3911). Experts said that Ganjam had a similar tale when the HIV infection was spreading fast between 2005 and 2010.
Sonamali Bag, former director of medical education and training, said the way Ganjam was more vulnerable to HIV because of its migrant population, the same way it is at risk from Covid-19. “Sanitation and hygiene of distressed migrants generally remain compromised,” said Bag, who has also served as in-charge of anti-retroviral therapy centre for treatment of HIV/AIDS individuals in Ganjam.
The district accounts for more than two lakh of the total 6.5 lakh returnees to the state in the past two-and-half months. A majority of them have returned from Surat and Ahmedabad in Gujarat.
“Since the number of cases is more in Ganjam, many vulnerable sections of people may have been exposed. The more deaths may be because of this,” Bag said.
It must be noted that around 50% of the patients who died in the state had diabetes, while many had hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, among other underlying conditions.
As on May 31, of the 51,266 HIV/AIDS individuals in the state, Ganjam contributes to more than 16,000, which is around 31.3%. “Being immuno-compromised, the HIV+ people are more vulnerable to complications from Covid if they get infected,” Bag said, adding HIV and Covid co-relation should be studied to understand the situation better.
Ajay Parida, director of Institute of Life Sciences, which has been undertaking a genomic study on the novel coronavirus in the state, said, “The reason behind higher deaths in Ganjam need further study. Though, when compared to rest of Odisha, the death in Ganjam is more, the sample size is still too less to come to a definite conclusion.”
Parida said one must note the fact that even the death situation in Ganjam is far better compared to the national average of 2.7%.
The new Covid deaths include two men aged 32 and 48, both having diabetes, a 41-year-old hypertensive and another 58-year-old man with no underlying conditions. Two other cancer patients who had tested Covid-19 positive died from cancer in Sundargarh and Bhadrak districts raising deaths of Covid patients due to non-Covid reasons to 17.