Child anxiety could be a factor in school absences

New Delhi, Mar 27: The Centre has restricted sale and distribution of "hydroxychloroquine" declaring it as an essential drug to treat the COVID-19 patients and meet the requirements of emergency arising due to the pandemic.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday made the announcement making it clear that the order "shall come into force on the date of its publication in the official Gazette".

In the order, the government declared that the Central government is "satisfied that the drug hydroxychloroquine is essential to meet the requirements of emergency arising due to pandemic COVID-19 and in the public interest, it is necessary and expedient to regulate and restrict the sale and distribution of the drug 'hydroxychloroquine' and preparation based thereon for preventing their misuse".

"Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 26B of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 (23 of 1940), the Central government hereby directs that sale by retail of any preparation containing the drug Hydroxychloroquine shall be in accordance with the conditions for sale of drugs specified in Schedule H1 to the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945."

The order came at a time when the novel coronavirus claimed 16 lives and infected over 600 people across India.

The announcement regarding ban of sale and distribution of the drug was made by the government earlier but it issued an official Gazette notification on Thursday signalling that hydroxychloroquine -- an anti-Malaria drug -- will work as a medicine for treating coronavirus infected patients as well.

Recently, the national task force for COVID-19 constituted by Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has recommended hydroxy-chloroquine as a preventive medication.

The practice of washing your hands for 20 seconds is one of the best preventive measures you can take to avoid the spread of any virus including coronavirus as recommended by the WHO.

The modern day concept of handwashing was introduced by Hungaraian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis, in 19-th century Vienna. Semmelweis proposed the practice of washing hands with chlorinated lime solutions in 1847 while working in the city's general hospital.

Decades later, in the modern times too the practise has not lost it's relevance. To connect with savvy consumers the message is being sent through social media? But social media can also be a dark place where misinformation is rampant; consumers can end up being misguided and compromised on sensitive issues like health and hygiene.

Dettol, recently kickstarted its #HandWashChallenge on TikTok aiming to raise awareness on four simple steps of handwashing. Strategically aimed at creating awareness among audience, a unique song has been created pairing it extremely well with the hashtag #HandWashChallenge. The hashtag filter has a branded Dettol strip across the top with the hashtag and names the steps involved in washing hands. The user can dance out the steps to the challenge and share it with their friends to further amplify the message on hygiene and safety.

Commenting on the same, Pankaj Duhan, Chief Marketing Officer, RB Health South Asia said, "We are elated with the response to the #HandWashChallenge, it has definitely become one of the most successfully led initiatives by any of our brands at RB. Understanding the consumer's mindset is of the utmost importance to us, therefore our campaign communication is built in a way that creates meaningful conversations to drive awareness amongst consumers. The participation by TikTok users across India has helped deliver the right message in a more engaging and interactive manner.

"I personally would like to encourage more and more people to join this global health & hygiene educational exercise. Together, let us all build a healthier nation, four steps at a time."

He further said, "Over the past couple of weeks we have witnessed a lot of misinformation floating around hygiene practices, especially over the internet. Realizing the gravity of the issue and being the responsible brand, we felt it was our prerogative to initiate this awareness campaign."

The campaign witnessed several quirky activities on each day leading to increased consumer interest. Joining the force were some of Bollywood's popular celebrities like Kartik Aaryan and Urvashi Rautela among several other TikTok influencers who have millions of followers on the platform. As part of Phase II, Dettol plans to take the challenge global by encouraging more users to participate while the audience worldwide.

The challenge has witnessed over 18 Billion views and generated over 123K user participation videos in one week of starting the campaign.

Lower neighbourhood socioeconomic status and greater household crowding increase the risk of becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, warn researchers.

"Our study shows that neighbourhood socioeconomic status and household crowding are strongly associated with risk of infection," said study lead author Alexander Melamed from Columbia University in the US.

"This may explain why Black and Hispanic people living in these neighbourhoods are disproportionately at risk for contracting the virus," Melamed added.

For the findings, published in the journal JAMA, the researchers examined the relationships between COVID-19 infection and neighbourhood characteristics in 396 women who gave birth during the peak of the Covid-19 outbreak in New York City. Since March 22, all women admitted to the hospitals for delivery have been tested for the virus, which gave the researchers the opportunity to detect all infections -- including infections with no symptoms -- in a defined population

The strongest predictor of COVID-19 infection among these women was residence in a neighbourhood where households with many people are common.The findings showed that women who lived in a neighbourhood with high household membership were three times more likely to be infected with the virus. Neighbourhood poverty also appeared to be a factor, the researchers said.Women were twice as likely to get COVID-19 if they lived in neighbourhoods with a high poverty rate, although that relationship was not statistically significant due to the small sample size.

The study revealed that there was no association between infection and population density.

"New York City has the highest population density of any city in the US, but our study found that the risks are related more to density in people's domestic environments rather than density in the city or within neighbourhoods," says co-author Cynthia Gyamfi-Bannerman."

The knowledge that SARS-CoV-2 infection rates are higher in disadvantaged neighbourhoods and among people who live in crowded households could help public health officials target preventive measures," the authors wrote.

Recently, another study published in the Journal of the American Planning Association, showed that dense areas were associated with lower COVID-19 death rates.