School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi-110067, India.
School of Agriculture, Shoolini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences, Solan 173229, India.
Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2021 Aug;237:113836. doi: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2021.113836. Epub 2021 Sep 1.
Our surrounding environment has been influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic situation. The second wave of COVID-19 in India has proven to be more devastating and aggressive than the first wave of the pandemic, which led to recognizing India as one of the world's topmost worst-hit nations considering >4000 fatalities reported in a single day in May 2021. Such "resurgence and acceleration" of COVID-19 transmission has been fuelled by the MahaKumbh festival and political mass gathering (elections rallies) events, where the COVID-19 protocols have been ignored by millions of pilgrims/followers. The present review discusses only the consequences of this year's MahaKumbh festivals, the largest religious mass gathering on earth, which was held during the COVID-19 pandemic in India, and its impact on both the spread of SARS-CoV-2 among participants and their families and its influence on the quality of the river Ganga. This article tries to give readers outside of India an overview of how much impact of any such single large gathering of any relgion in any part of the world can drive coronavirus infections and effectively commence the second/third wave outbreak with this case study. Furthermore, the religious large scale celebration are widely accepted through out the world that have played a significant role in the spread of the pandemic into remote villages and towns all over the subcontinent/world, thus affecting many areas with insufficient healthcare facilities that have been relatively spared. This review also highlights the potential risk of transmission from infected humans into the aquatic environment of the river Ganga. Besides the obvious relevance of SARS-CoV-2, a large variety of other water-related disease vectors (bacteria, viruses, and protozoa) stemming from visitors to the religious congregation were introduced into the upstream regions of the Ganga river. Their sheer number is assumed to have had a severe influence on its delicate ecosystem, including endangered mammals such as the river Dolphins. The detailed epidemiological and clinical study on transmission routes of SARS-CoV-2 is the need of the hour to understand the pathogenesis of RNA virus infection and prevent the massive spreading of such infectious respiratory diseases. An interdisciplinary approach, rooted in evidence-based efficient learning, contextual strategies, and a streamlined unified approach should be adopted to help in the development of a proactive prevention model during future MahaKumbh festival (and similar religious gatherings) instead of just "picking up the pieces" in a conventional post-event model.
我们的周围环境受到了 COVID-19 大流行情况的影响。印度的第二波 COVID-19 疫情比第一波疫情更为严重和具有攻击性，这导致印度成为全球受影响最严重的国家之一，仅在 2021 年 5 月就报告了超过 4000 人死亡。这种 COVID-19 传播的“复苏和加速”是由大壶节和政治群众集会（选举集会）事件推动的，数百万朝圣者/追随者无视 COVID-19 协议。本综述仅讨论了今年大壶节的后果，这是地球上最大的宗教群众集会，在印度 COVID-19 大流行期间举行，以及它对参与者及其家人中 SARS-CoV-2 传播的影响，以及对恒河水质的影响。本文试图让印度以外的读者了解，世界任何地区的任何宗教的这种大型集会，都可能对冠状病毒感染产生多大的影响，并通过这一案例研究有效引发第二/第三波疫情。此外，宗教大型庆祝活动在世界各地被广泛接受，在印度次大陆/世界的偏远村庄和城镇传播方面发挥了重要作用，从而影响了许多医疗设施不足的地区，这些地区相对幸免。本综述还强调了从受感染的人类传播到恒河水生环境的潜在风险。除了 SARS-CoV-2 的明显相关性外，大量其他与水有关的疾病载体（细菌、病毒和原生动物）也从参加宗教集会的人中进入恒河上游地区。据估计，它们的数量之多对其脆弱的生态系统产生了严重影响，包括濒临灭绝的哺乳动物，如恒河海豚。对 SARS-CoV-2 传播途径的详细流行病学和临床研究是了解 RNA 病毒感染发病机制和防止此类传染性呼吸道疾病大规模传播的当务之急。一种根植于循证有效学习、情境策略和简化统一方法的跨学科方法，应该被采用，以帮助在未来的大壶节（和类似的宗教集会）期间制定一种积极的预防模式，而不是仅仅在传统的事后模式中“收拾残局”。
