(Thread) I looked at data from 627 districts and over 1.5 lakh health facilities for the last few months and years, and what I found was very worrying. Medical services declined across the board in March 2020.
This includes immunisations - 2 lakh children fewer got the pentavalent vaccine, over 1 lakh fewer kids got their BCG vaccine. It also includes a host of maternal services.
There was a huge fall in inpatient services for infectious diseases, but interpreting this as a fall in illness alone would be inaccurate. This is because there was a huge fall in outpatient treatment of all NCDs, including cancer.
There was a decline in emergency services that are not likely to pause for lockdown - emergencies related to deliveries, heart attacks, strokes.
The number of those being registered for and completing TB treatment fell. HIV/AIDS screening fell. Lab investigations fell. Outpatient treatment of mental illness fell sharply.
These declines are in comparison to February and Jan 2020, but also in comparison to March 2019. They are across states and districts. And they hold even after adjusting for the fewer facilities reporting in March 2020.
The data is for both rural and urban, public and private - but predominantly for rural India and public health facilities, i.e. the backbone of rural health.
Please read: livemint.com/news/india/how…
