COMMUNITY SUSTAINED MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH IN COVID PANDEMIC MANAGEMENT - A FIELD EXPERIENCE FROM INDIA- A CASE REPORT

Abstract

COVID pandemic with repeated outbreaks is associated with newer genomic variants and bound to create professional fatigue, which needs a community-based strategy to control the disease. During March 2021, the Tirunelveli district health authority adopted a Community Sustained Multidisciplinary Approach (CSMA) and was hypothesised to be more productive in managing the 2nd wave. It was a community-centric approach with primary prevention, early diagnosis & referral, early treatment and reduction of morbidity and mortality. The strategy included community-friendly lock-down with social security, community sustained micro-containment, women self-help group sustained hamlet level screening and a time-sensitive patient referral with monitoring of oxygen requirement. This study concludes that resource-constrained public health systems need to adopt a community-based approach to contain the pandemic efficiently, as demonstrated in Tirunelveli district through a Community Sustained Multidisciplinary Approach. This unique public health approach had a vital role in the efficient containment of the pandemic.