The severity of Covid pandemic is not the same like it was a few years ago but the long-term impact of the pandemic still continues
The patients who have survived an intense infection of SARS-CoV-2 are suffering the most due to the long-term impact
Many patients in the State who beat Covid-19 are now struggling with numerous health complications with their lungs
The complications in the lungs of people has triggered a sharp increase in lung transplant surgeries
Being an upper respiratory tract infection, the Covid-19 pandemic has inflicted long term damage to lungs of patients who have managed to beat the disease in the three consecutive Covid wave
There have been instances where individuals had to face multiple infections during every wave, which has inflicted more damage to lungs
As a result, such patients need lung transplantation to survive, which has fuelled the demand for donor lungs
Before 2020, every year the lung transplants taken up at leading super-specialty hospitals in Telangana have never crossed double digit marks
However, since Covid-19, the lung transplants are consistently touching double digits and are hovering just below the 100 mark
Since the launch of Jeevandan, the organ donation initiative of the State government, between 2013 and 2020, a total of 23 lung transplants were taken-up in Hyderabad
Between 2020 and 2022, a whopping 156 lung transplants, which is over 500 per cent increase, have been conducted
On an average, every month anywhere between 6 and 10 lung transplants are being taken-up at private hospitals in Hyderabad