India and its pluralistic health system - a new philosophy for Universal Health Coverage.

In this article we attempt to put forth insights into using traditional medicine (TM) systems to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC). We discuss the need for reimagining India's health system and the importance of an inclusive approach for UHC. We comprehend the challenges with appropriate use of TM systems and the lessons from international experience of integrating TM systems. We highlight the pathways for better utilization of TM systems for UHC in India.

Profiling Cognitive Impairment in Mild COVID-19 Patients: A Case-Control Study at a Secondary Healthcare Centre in the Hilly Region of North India.

Context: COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a serious threat to humanity even after the last 2.5 years and multiple reported waves. Post-COVID-19 cognitive impairment has a detrimental effect on the quality of life, education, occupation, psychosocial as well as adaptive functioning and independence. Aims and Objective: Profiling the cognitive impairment in the mild COVID-19 recovered patients. Settings and Design: Interview-based case-control study. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted at a secondary healthcare center in a hilly region of north India. Group A included mild COVID-19 recovered patients and Group B included local non-COVID healthy individuals. Both groups of participants were interviewed using Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) to identify global and domain-wise cognitive impairment. Statistics Used: Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the demographic and clinical variables. The Chi-square test was used to evaluate these results and statistical analysis was done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 23) program. Results: A total of 284 individuals were enrolled in our study, equally split into Groups A (cases) and B (controls). No global cognitive decline was found in any participant. However, 40 cases scored low on MoCA. The decrease in domain-wise cognitive function was statistically significant for visuospatial skill/executive function and attention. Conclusion: Our results have demonstrated that there is domain-wise cognitive impairment associated with mild COVID-19 disease. We recommend lowering the threshold of the MoCA to identify the early cognitive impairment and the inclusion of detailed cognitive assessment in post-COVID-19 follow-ups to initiate early cognitive rehabilitation among these patients.