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India being a secular federal republic country that stands at second position among most populated countries in the world (Dyson, 2018). According to the World population prospects revision of 2019, the population of India is 1,352,642,280 (WPO, 2019). In view of healthcare provisions, India is presently in a state of transition - economically, demographically and epidemiologically. India has made enormous strides in health and healthcare over the past decades (Iyamu, 2020). As a result, the life expectancy of a person has increased from 49.7 in 1970 to 67.9 years of age in 2014. Also, there has been a fall-off in the infant mortality rate from 74 to 37 per 1000 live births during the year 2015 (NHP, 2017 & Sankar et al, 2016).
Despite, India being one of the world’s largest economic countries, it has some serious issues with poverty and some of the most severe issues with infectious diseases on the planet (John et al, 2011 & Khatua et al, 2020). Infectious diseases are accounted for the highest cases of hospitalizations. Figure 1 shows the hospitalization ratio of people in India (MHoFHW, 2020). Comparing the diseases and causes of hospitalization ratio, infectious diseases have the highest ratio of 31.4%. The major reason for infections and hospitalization is the sharing of ailments with their family and friends. Rural India suffered more infections than compared to urban India with a ratio of 36% to 24%. The major infections in India are malaria, viral hepatitis, jaundice, acute diarrheal diseases/ dysentery, dengue, rabies, soil-transmitted helminth, visceral leishmaniosis, Lymphatic filariasis, etc (WHO, 2020).
Figure 1.
Hospitalization ratio in India
Some of the diseases attain epidemic proportions occasionally such as dengue, meningitis, measles, typhoid fever, etc (INCDC, 2020). On the other hand, many diseases such as malaria, flu, tuberculosis, etc sustain endemic situations (Mitchell, 2003). The epidemic refers to a spike in the reckoning of infectious cases in excess of normal expectations among the population. The major cause of epidemic emergencies has been considered mainly due to environment and socio-economical factors (Caunhye et al, 2012).
The inadequacy of salubrious & clean drinking-water, contamination, of potable water sources, oblivious of insanitation, filthy foods and crowds are the major concerns of environmental factors (Lugo-Robles et al, 2020). The social factors include education, racial segregation, social supports and poverty accounts for a major role in health outcomes (Braveman et al, 2011). The economic factors have a direct cause of environmental factors of health issues. These factors have a significant direct cost in the control measures for epidemic situations, and indirect costs associated with negative impacts on the economic conditions of a country. Moreover, the consequence of the prevalence of epidemics may result in a higher mortality rate and thus affects the public health and economy levels adversely. In addition, the post infection effects of each endemic or epidemic disease may post infection syndrome that causes the people to suffer for a longer time.