Download PDF
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Indian J Med Paediatr Oncol 2020; 41(04): 446-449
DOI: 10.4103/ijmpo.ijmpo_198_20
Editorial Commentary

Midst of COVID-19 Crisis – Lookout for One Another to Practice Humanity!

Reetu Jain
1   Department of Medical Oncology, Jaslok Hospital, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
,
Rima Pathak
2   Department of Radiation Oncology, Tata Memorial Centre, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
,
Padmaj Kulkarni
3   Department of Medical Oncology, Dinanath Mangeshkar Hospital, Pune, Maharashtra, India
,
Prashant Mehta
4   Department of Medical Oncology/Hematology/BMT, Asian Institute of Medical Sciences, Faridabad, Haryana, India
,
T VSVGK Tilak
5   Department of Internal Medicine, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, Maharashtra, India
,
Jyoti Bajpai
6   Department of Medical Oncology, Tata Memorial Centre, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
› Author Affiliations Financial support and sponsorship Nil.
› Further Information
Also available at
   Permissions and Reprints

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought anxiety and panic among people across the world.

Case: Ms. S, our departmental secretary, a young and cheerful lady, called up at the end of her shift, crying and wanting to urgently get tested to know if she is infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). One of the radiotherapy staff had been diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection, and it was the reason for her panic. The radiotherapy and the medical oncology departments shared the same floor, leading her to think that she would be infected. Her world had come crashing down and was difficult to calm her down.

This real-life incident at our tertiary care center set me thinking about the fear and panic this virus had created despite all the training that the staff was given for dealing with COVID-19. This made me wonder what must be going through in a layperson's mind or among people in the society where suspected or infected people are kept under home quarantine? The nationwide lockdown, gave the much-needed time to go through the literature and gather my thoughts on how to help such people during these troubled times.



Publication History

Received: 27 April 2020

Accepted: 19 May 2020

Article published online:
17 May 2021

© 2020. Indian Society of Medical and Paediatric Oncology. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.)

Thieme Medical and Scientific Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
A-12, 2nd Floor, Sector 2, Noida-201301 UP, India

 

  • References

  • 1 Tsang J, Bajpai J. Novel coronavirus infection – Knowns and unknowns with particular reference to oncology – Combating against COVID-19 with “COVID.”. Indian J Med Paediatr Oncol 2020; 41: 112-20
    Google Scholar
  • 2 World Health Organization. Statement on the Second Meeting of the International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee regarding the Outbreak of Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV). World Health Organization; 2020 https://www.who.int/news-room/detil/30-01-2020-statement-on-the-second-meeting-of-the-int ernational-health-regulations-(2005)-emergency-committee-regarding-the-outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov). Available from: [Last accessed on 2020 Apr 22]
    Google Scholar
  • 3 World Health Organization. WHO Announces COVID-19 Outbreak a Pandemic. World Health Organization; 2020 http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-emergencies/coronavirus-covid-19/news/news/2020/3/who-announces-covid-19-outbreak-a-pandemic. Available from: [Last accessed on 2020 Apr 22]
    Google Scholar
  • 4 van Doremalen N, Bushmaker T, Morris DH, Holbrook MG, Gamble A, Williamson BN. et al. Aerosol and surface stability of SARS-CoV-2 as compared with SARS-CoV-1. N Engl J Med 2020; 382: 1564-7
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 5 World Health Organization. Q&A on Coronaviruses (COVID-19). 2020 https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-etail/q-a-coronaviruses. Available from: [Last accessed on 2020 Apr 09]
    Google Scholar
  • 6 Adhikari SP, Meng S, Wu YJ, Mao YP, Ye RX, Wang QZ. et al. Epidemiology, causes, clinical manifestation and diagnosis, prevention and control of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) during the early outbreak period: A scoping review. Infect Dis Poverty 2020; 9: 29
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 7 Velavan TP, Meyer CG. The COVID-19 epidemic. Trop Med Int Health 2020; 25: 278-80 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32052514. Available from: [Last accessed on 2020 Apr 22]
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 8 Wu Z, McGoogan JM. Characteristics of and important lessons from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in China: Summary of a report of 72314 cases from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. JAMA 2020; 323: 1239-42
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 9 Zhou F, Yu T, Du R, Fan G, Liu Y, Liu Z. et al. Clinical course and risk factors for mortality of adult inpatients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: A retrospective cohort study. Lancet 2020; 395: 1054-62
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 10 Liang W, Guan W, Chen R, Wang W, Li J, Xu K. et al. Cancer patients in SARS-CoV-2 infection: A nationwide analysis in China. Lancet Oncol 2020; 21: 335-7
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 11 Wang W, Xu Y, Gao R, Lu R, Han K, Wu G. et al. Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in different types of clinical specimens. JAMA 2020; 323: 1843-4
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 12 U.S. Food and Drug Administration: FAQs on Diagnostic Testing for SARS-CoV-2. FDA. 2020 https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/emergency-situations-meical-devices/faqs-diagnostic-testing-sars-cov-2. Available from: [Last accessed on 2020 Apr 22]
  • 13 Raptis CA, Hammer MM, Short RG, Shah A, Bhalla S, Bierhals AJ. et al. Chest CT and coronavirus disease (COVID-19): A critical review of the literature to date. AJR Am J Roentgenol 2020; 1-4 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub med/32298149. Available from: [Last accessed on 2020 Apr 22]
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 14 Fang Y, Zhang H, Xie J, Lin M, Ying L, Pang P. Sensitivity of Chest CT for COVID-19: Comparison to RT-PCR. Radiology 2020; 200432 DOI: 10.1148/radiol.2020200432. et al. Online ahead of print
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 15 Department of Health Research IC of MR: Revised Strategy of COVID19 testing in India (Version 3, dated 20/03/2020). 2020 https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/ICMRrevisedtestings.rategyforCOVID.pdf. Available from: [Last accessed on 2020 Apr 24]
    Google Scholar
  • 16 Covid-19 Outbreak: NSA against Lockdown Violators - India News - Hindustan Times. https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/covid-19-outbreak-nsa-against-lockdown-violators/story-t7f4r5EwZhk8MHY8D59U2O.html. Available from: [Last accessed on 2020 Apr 23]
    Google Scholar
  • 17 Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Detail Question and Answers on COVID-19 for Public. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; 2020 https://www.mohfw.gov.in/. Available from: [Last accessed on 2020 Apr 23]
    Google Scholar
  • 18 World Health Organization. WHO COVID-19 Dashboard. World Health Organization; 2020 https://covid19.who.int/ Available from: [Last accessed on 2020 Apr 23]
    Google Scholar
  • 19 Does BCG bolster one's Immunity against COVID-19? BMJ. https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m1252/rr-4. Available from: [Last accessed on 2020 Apr 23]
  • 20 Sun Z, Thilakavathy K, Kumar SS, He G, Liu SV. Potential factors influencing repeated SARS outbreaks in China. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2020; 17: 1633
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 21 Liu J, Zhou J, Yao J, Zhang X, Li L, Xu X. et al. Impact of meteorological factors on the COVID-19 transmission: A multi-city study in China. Sci Total Environ 2020; 726: 138513
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar