পশ্চিমবঙ্গের করোণা পরিস্থিতি আজ ভারতে চর্চার বিষয়। আজ বঙ্গদেশে লিখেছেন খ্যাতনামা চিকিৎসক ডঃ ইন্দ্রনীল বসু রায়। তিনি কার্ডিওলজিষ্ট এবং ইলেক্ট্রোকার্ডিওলজিষ্ট। তিনি আমেরিকা ও ভারতের বহু বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ে মেডিসিন ও জনস্বাস্থ্যের অধ্যাপক। তিনি রাজ্যের মুখ্যমন্ত্রী মাননীয়া মমতা ব্যানার্জীকে লিখছেন। তিনি লিখেছেন, জনগণের ধারণা এই যে পশ্চিমবঙ্গে যেভাবে করোণা সংক্রমণ গোপন করা হচ্ছে, রাত্রির অন্ধকারে মৃতদেহ পাচার চলছে, তা এটাই প্রতিভাত করে যে মুখ্যমন্ত্রী ব্যাধিটির ভয়াবহতা সম্পর্কে হয়তো সম্যক ওয়াকিবহাল নন।
এই ব্যাধিটির কোন ঔষধ নেই বলে একমাত্র পন্থা হল আক্রান্ত ব্যক্তিকে চিহ্নিত করে আলাদা করে রাখা। চীন থেকে আসা এই ব্যাধির জন্য কেউ মাননীয়া মুখ্যমন্ত্রীকে দোষারোপ করত না। কিন্তু মৃতদেহ গায়েব করার মাধ্যমে এই ব্যাধির বাড়বাড়ন্তই হবে যখন প্রয়োজন এই ব্যাধিগ্রস্তদের সঙ্গে সংযোগকারী ব্যক্তিদের আলাদা করে ব্যাধির প্রসারণে বাধা দেওয়ার। যদি সহস্র সহস্র ব্যক্তি ব্যাধিতে আক্রান্ত হতে থাকে এবং শত শত ব্যক্তি মারা যেতে থাকে তাহলে নিশ্চয়ই মুখ্যমন্ত্রীর ভালো লাগবে না, নয় কি?
আরও দুঃখের কথা এই যে বাংলার প্রতিভাবান ডাক্তারদের মৃত্যুর শংসাপত্র প্রদানে উপযুক্ত মনে করা হচ্ছে না। শুধু ভারতের নয়, পৃথিবীর উন্নত দেশগুলিতে বহু বিশিষ্ট ডাক্তার হলেন বাঙ্গালী। তাঁরা আপন প্রতিভায় সমাজের স্বীকৃতি আদায় করে নিয়েছেন। কিন্তু পশ্চিমবঙ্গের মুখ্যমন্ত্রী স্বয়ং তাঁর ডাক্তারদের কে করোণায় মারা গেছেন তা বলতে দিচ্ছেন না। পৃথক কমিটি এই কাজ করছে। এ ভীষণ লজ্জার কথা। একজন ডাক্তার হিসাবে ডঃ বসু রায় শঙ্কিত ও লজ্জিত যে তাঁর সহকর্মীরা লাঞ্ছিত হচ্ছেন। এ পরামর্শ মুখ্যমন্ত্রীকে কি তাঁর পার্টির ডাক্তাররা দিয়েছে? কি অবাক ব্যাপার।
পরিশেষে ডঃ বসুরায় মুখ্যমন্ত্রীকে তাঁর রাজধর্ম পালন করতে আর আরও মৃত্যুর হাত থেকে পশ্চিমবঙ্গবাসীকে বাঁচাতে বলেছেন।
নীচে পুরো চিঠিটি প্রদত্ত হল।
Dear Miss Mamata Banerjee,
I’m writing to you considerably worried about the COVID 19 situation in West Bengal. Since I’m not privy to the ground situation, most of my information is based on people who live in the state, physicians who are presently working on the ground, and from newspapers, TV channels, and social media.
I’m a cardiologist and a cardiac electrophysiologist presently in the United States of America, who was also a Professor of medicine and public health at multiple universities in the US and India. Since it is not about me, a brief introduction as above would suffice.
The first and foremost complaint that I receive is the fact that Covid19 cases are purposely mislabeled, and infections are hidden, and bodies trashed off in the darkness of the night. I’m not sure if this is true, but this seems to be the general public opinion. Ms. Banerjee having dealt with COVID, I am forced to let you know that this is the most dangerous infection that humankind has ever seen. It has killed hundreds and thousands of people all over the world. It is also essential to understand that the people killed are just not older people with a bunch of diseases, but also young people have died due to this disease in thousands all over Europe and the Americas. It is thus imperative to detect every case of COVID and do immediate contact isolation to prevent the spread as much as possible. Failing to do this would lead to wildfire like spread of this pandemic, killing hundreds and thousands, which would be extremely regrettable.
This disease has been imported from China, who let the infection spread worldwide while protecting their people by early blocking flights from Wuhan to other cities of China. By allowing hundreds and thousands of Chinese to migrate to other nations, China has ensured this pandemic. Thus neither you or your government has any role whatsoever in this particular problem. Therefore I fail to understand if it is true; why is this overarching try to keep COVID cases secret by disposing of bodies mislabeling them. Tracking the people dying is essential as they help to delineate the contacts who need to be immediately isolated if a massive cascade of death and destruction is to be prevented.
For some still unknown reason, this virus thankfully has not created the death and destruction as was seen in the Western nation, including those with an excellent medical delivery system. However, that does not mean that things may not change in the future as you know more than me; the number of cases is increasing in India and also in Bengal. Keeping in mind that this is one virus, which is exceptionally infective, and it is highly lethal to many people, particularly the elderly with cardiovascular diseases, is only half the truth. Unfortunately, even younger people who get severe infections have died in thousands in the US, Italy, Spain, and England. Many of them healthy with absolutely no cardiovascular disease. Young people were found to have severe refractory heart failure, sudden cardiac death, and severe swelling of the heart called “Myocarditis.” I am compelled to point out the fact that as West Bengal is exceptionally crowded the virus if it infects a particular locality, it will spread like wildfire infecting thousands and killing quite a few. Thus it is essential to maintain strict social distancing and ensure that this dangerous virus could be prevented from spreading and killing as it has been doing in certain Western countries. India, including West Bengal, may be lucky because of a different viral strain not to have such severe infection. Still, we cannot take anything for granted as you will regret if thousands are infected and hundreds start dying because of a lack of strictness and appropriate detection of COVID.
I am also sad and immensely hurt that you do not consider physicians trained in Bengal to be competent enough to give a death certificate to their patients. I like to let you know Ms. Banerjee that Bengal produced one of the best doctors in the world, and even today, some of the top American institutions have Bengali doctors. So, it is shocking that your doctors are considered incompetent, and you have to set up a committee to provide that certificate to the patient. Politics apart as being an academic physician-scientist, I do not want to go into politics, but this very step is extremely insulting to doctors. Thousands of doctors the world over are risking their lives every day to save hundreds and thousands of patients. Nowhere in the world has it ever happened that the treating doctor does not have the right to give the actual death certificate, but a special “team” set up by you is thought only competent to do that. I am indeed surprised and ashamed of my brethren physicians in TMC, if any, who has given you such wrong advice.
Medical research has revealed that COVID can coexist not only with noncommunicable diseases but also with other infectious diseases, including bacterial and viral infection. These are still COVID infection as COVID invariably will be the most dangerous and lethal amongst most known bugs. Mainly because of the rest of the disease are either treatable or manageable with conservative treatment. As you know, for COVID, we neither have a treatment, and the only prevention possible is by social distancing and locked down. Thus branding COVID cases inappropriately in the presence of other infections is a particularly dangerous thing. Diagnosis is COVID itself is not only essential, but what is important also is immediate isolation of the contacts so that they are rendered incapable of spreading infections. Hushing up such infection and not taking appropriate precautions like isolation would lead to death and destruction, which I certainly know that you would not like as the CM of my state.
I would therefore kindly request you to take urgent steps to realize the deadliness of this virus and the fact that it is a killing machine. Appropriate measures, including augmented testing, isolation of all contacts, and forceful enforcement of the lockdown are mandatory to prevent the exact scenario as seen in the west.