Govt releases guidelines on managing post-COVID complications for health workers

New Delhi: Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday released guidelines on the treatment of sequelae of COVID-19 which will help in building the capacity of doctors, nurses, paramedics and community health workers across India to deal with long-term effects of the coronavirus infection.

The minister said that the modules have been prepared to provide guidance to doctors and healthcare workers to deal with the issue of long-term effects of COVID-19, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

He said that proactive and comprehensive treatment of COVID-19 is required to ensure minimum side effects and no negative effect of the treatment.

"We have witnessed the consequences of post-Covid effect in patients due to taking higher doses of steroids like cases of Mucormycosis. It is important to take medicines, with less or negligible side effects. If we are alert beforehand, it will be fruitful in tackling the future consequences of Covid," he was quoted as saying in the statement.

"The perceptions related to post-Covid that are perpetuating in our society like fears, mental health issues resulting due to Covid are important to be tackled. So, it's important to understand these post-Covid issues and resolve them," Mandaviya stated.

Efforts have been made by the resource persons across the country for the management of these post-COVID-19 complications to prepare the sequelae modules. These are very specialised modules prepared keeping in mind various fields of healthcare professionals, he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar emphasised on the need to tackle mental health issues and to reach the last mile, the statement said.

"This pandemic has put an unprecedented challenge on our health and healthcare system. Mental health care is a big challenge for a country with such a large population. We need to build our capacity to tackle this challenge of mental health," Pawar was quoted as saying in the statement.

If the frontline workers are equipped with proper knowledge and training, they can become a valuable resource in the fight against these post-COVID-19 challenges.

"When we are trying to equip ourselves to fight against post-Covid consequences, it's also important to take these to the last mile. The training modules for mental health and other issues have been prepared based on the needs expressed by state health experts," she said, adding that all should work together to ensure that COVID-19 becomes the last human pandemic.