Health is lost, something is lost!

Times are bad. While the whole world is grappling with various issues including terrorism, economic downturn, regional and religious tussles, unemployment, and growing global warming, the outbreak of various dreaded diseases now poses yet another threat to the survival of humanity.

With the outbreak of various diseases, only certain sections of people are in panic, while on the other side, scientists and health organisations are more concentrating on naming the diseases rather than preventing or alerting the public.

The change in lifestyle, food habits, work culture and climatic changes are developing viral diseases and day by day, the killer virus is getting adopted to the antibiotics which are being taken by human beings.

Though sanitation companies are penetrating into the market with new and updated versions of their products such as toilet cleaning liquids, handwash, mosquito repellents and others, on the other side for the health conscious consumers, marketing agents are focusing on organic, herbal and safe to use products.

Researchers should focus on the consumer behaviour and trend in sale of such products, and how the consumers' rationality has shifted, from pricing to branding and health. The ethnography studies in countries like India give more interesting facts.

Mass media plays a significant role in health promotion and is crucial for social development. Television, newspapers and now the new media are important sources of health and nutrition science for many viewers and readers.

Many research studies have considered them as a tool that will influence behaviour of the community at large. Therefore, the reporting of news about medicine, public health and nutrition science is an area of concern to many health and social scientists.

It is time for all the stakeholders and civil society to come together and work towards prevention of diseases which are contagious. It is not that whenever there is an outbreak, we should get alert on prevention, for instance, it is a common behaviour of any person who is suffering from cough or cold to not to cover his or her mouth and noses with a safety mask, but just coughs or sneezes on the person beside.

It is already too late to create awareness on basic behaviour of the individual when he/she is facing or suffering from some transmissible disease. It is also time to teach our children and groom them to practice good health behaviour.

According to Strata Survey, the number of smartphone users worldwide today crosses three billion and is said to further grow by several hundred millions in the next few years.

China, India, and the United States are the countries with the highest number of smartphone users, with each country easily crossing the 100 million user mark.

The individual having a mobile phone is just receiving unnecessary content through video and text, a study claims that every three out of four users come across irrelevant ads on social media.

During the outbreak of the diseases, most of the posts in the social media are found to be giving tips for the prevention of the disease. There is no authentication of the tip or suggestion by any authority, such content is misleading the individuals, which will ultimately lead to severe health complications or psychological panic to the content consumers.

It is a good initiative of some TV channels to air an episode of true facts on the viral messages on social media. Apart from the gossip messages, the content related to stake of the individuals' health should be seriously considered.

Not only the content of the social media but the raising advertisements on the cable television is also a serious concern. After the TRAI's new regulation of giving the consumer choice of selecting the news channel, the cable channels which are free to air are dumped up with all the black magic advertisements.

How can some Baba, Sadhu will treat health problems without any medical consultation or diagnosis? The afternoon slots of all television channels are airing the medical products with testimonials. And the surprise part of such advertorials is that they give offers on the medical products and provoke the viewers with the frequency of announcements.

There should be some regulation on all kinds of media promoting health-related content to a large number of audiences. At the same time, health awareness should be created by some authorised machinery to build credibility of the method of prevention, do's and don'ts of food habits and diet of the individuals.

Video contents on social media encourages people to follow a certain diet plan, thus increasing diet challenge like never before. Gone are the days where various mobile applications showed the number of steps and heartbeats.

Mobile applications related to health, workouts, diet and nutrition plans and challenges are downloaded by the individuals with the subscription of monthly, quarterly and annual plans.

The subscribers are not known to the practitioners and the health and nutrition plans are suggested based on the data provided by the individual. There is no checking of medical records, diagnosis or tests conducted, it is simply based on the information that is provided by the subscriber.

It is high time now for the professional health institutions and civil society woke up and cut down the fake medical content by unfollowing the sites, uninstalling the apps and blocking the advertisements.

The health behaviour should be designed with the individual traits and health problems with proper diagnosis and medical practitioner guidance.

(The author is Public Relations Officer, State Information Centre, Government of Telangana, New Delhi. Views expressed are personal)