More About Dr. G C

Dr (Prof) Gourdas Choudhuri is a Gastroenterologist of national eminence, with 30 years of
experience in managing patients of complex gastrointestinal, liver and pancreatic diseases, in
performing diagnostic & therapeutic endoscopic procedures, in imparting training to postgraduates
and fellows, and in research. (www.drgchoudhuri.net)

Chairman, Department of Gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary Sciences, Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram, Haryana, India.
Founder and Director, HOPE (Health Oriented Programs and Education (www.hope.org.in)
Former Professor and Head, Department of Gastroenterology at Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow (1987-2012)
Past President, Indian Society of Gastroenterology (national society, 2009-2010), and Honorary Secretary of ISG (2002-8)
Fellow of American College of Gastroenterology (FACG)
Fellow of National (Indian) Academy of Medical Sciences (FAMS)
Fellow of Indian College of Physicians (FICP)
Fellow of Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (FRCPI)
Fellow of Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (FRCP(E).
WHO fellow in Health Promotion (University of Sydney)
Edited 5 books and published over 200 papers in scientific journals

Medical Journal

Research Gate

Public Health Issues in Digestive Health: Lessons from the COVID Pandemic

(Talk delivered in national e-Conference of Association of Physicians of India on March 7th, 2021)

One major track-change that the COVID Pandemic has brought about is to shift the focus from individualized precision medicine back to PUBLIC HEALTH, a subject dealing with
- protecting and improving the health of people and their communities.
- by promoting safe behaviour and healthy lifestyles,
- researching disease and injury prevention,
- and detecting, preventing and responding to infectious diseases.

While it is a viral infection this time, following on the heels of its predecessors such as the SARS, swine flu, influenza and other respiratory infections, PUBLIC HEALTH as a science started with a Gastrointestinal infection, namely cholera, in 1854 in a London epidemic, when a doctor (John Snow) was the first to suspect that it could be spreading through infected water.
Infections, be it respiratory, GI (water or food borne), skin are still the typical ones that PUBLIC HEALTH has grown up to address, but has now expanded to 5 more domains:
- Contaminants such as high levels of toxins like arsenic in drinking water
- Occupational : such as those of miners where their eyes and lungs bear the brunt
- Genetic: such as thalassemia
- Accidents: such as road traffic accidents, a leading cause of injuries and death in India
- LIFE STYLE diseases such as obesity, fatty liver, cardiac disease and depression
While COVID pandemic has been dramatic because of the rapidity with which it has spread across the world, a slow simmering one of the “Life-style” variety that has been going on for the last 3 decades is FATYY LIVER disease, a condition characterised excess deposition of fat in the liver
These two seemed to have intersected in recent months. Scientists noted that those with Fatty Liver (often associated with Diabetes, obesity, heart disease) constituting 30% of urban adults, developed more severe disease and had a higher chance of dying when they contracted COVID infection
Commonly referred to as Co-morbidities, the presence of these metabolic “life-style related” diseases made the COVID 19 infection much more deadly.

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