New Delhi: Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Monday said that the medical curriculum will have to adapt itself in the post-COVID-19 era as there is going to be a renewed focus on the study and management of infectious diseases.
Addressing an online conference with the heads and representatives of national medical teaching institutes, he said that the coronavirus has suddenly awakened the whole world, particularly the medical fraternity, to realise that the age of infections is far from over.
Singh said that the Indian medical fraternity has an advantage over their western counterparts because the practice of medicine in the country was inherently tuned to prescriptions based on hygiene and prevention of cross infections. Therefore, he said, in the wake of COVID-19, Indian medical fraternity was quick to re-orient itself to the new norms of medical management, according to a Personnel Ministry statement.
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The leading academic institutions of India owe the responsibility to re-emphasise certain aspects of the medical curriculum because these are the institutions which actually enjoy the distinction of training the teachers for nearly 400 medical colleges spread across the country. We may get over the coronavirus, but this may not be the last virus to confront, the minister said.
In the last three decades, the disease spectrum in India shifted to non-communicable diseases and hence, the medical teaching got focussed more on metabolic and vascular disorders like diabetes mellitus, coronary heart diseases etc, while the infectious diseases took a back seat with the advent of superior anti-microbial drugs, Singh said.