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PROBLEM STATEMENT

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ABOUT THE DISEASE

HISTORY OF PANDEMIC

The Covid-19 Pandemic Unearthed The Weak Links Within Healthcare Systems Around The World Not Just In Public Health But Also In The Delivery Of Care. The Most Critical Gaps Were In The Delays In Disease Outbreak Prediction And Response, As Well As In Disease Analyses And Reporting.

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers)
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars)

Healthcare systems globally are ineffective in identifying and responding to outbreaks. Most systems operate independently, partly due to immature systems that are still operated manually using conventional statistical and epidemiological modelling.

There is an urgent need for a global structured, centralised and coordinated real-time response and database within and among countries. This will enable better management of disease outbreaks, whether in funding, human resource, hospital capacity, treatment, post-care and more.

IPPC’s superior surveillance system and database will converge infectious disease reporting, antimicrobial resistance, and bioterrorism, which currently work in silos. The disease-agnostic reporting system with data uniformity will cover every known infectious disease in the world at this point in time.

Microbes have been within us or around us for millions of years. Although they can be useful to lives and civilization, many microbes are also identified as pathogens that can cause acute infectious diseases. Historically, microbes are the most significant cause of death in humans.

Pathogens may also trigger pathways to chronic diseases and transmit from one person to another through various media. The disruption of global ecosystems, impact of poverty – improper sanitation and infrastructure, the dynamics of human behaviour – rapid international travel and commerce; all these and more have contributed to the continuous spread of infectious diseases.

 

YOU MIGHT BE INFECTED?

THE COST OF DISEASE OUTBREAKS


The magnitude of pandemics is also greater with novel pathogens, which can cause high mortality and/or hospitalization rates and spreads even faster. In the history of mankind, pandemics have caused millions of deaths, massive social disruption, and profound economic losses.

WHO tracked 1483 epidemic events in 172 countries from 2011 to 2018. The more frequently detected epidemics such as influenza virus, Ebola, Zika, plague, Yellow Fever, and others, are potentially fast-spreading outbreaks that are increasingly difficult to manage. They have the potential of escalating into international threats leading to loss of life, upend economies, and create social chaos.

Financial experts defined pandemic risk as a combination of low probability (1-3% per annum), infrequent occurrence, and high to severe economic impact (up to $3 trillion) depending on prevention and containment measures. The main concern is the underestimation of the effects, combined with complacency.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that pandemic risk today is more prevalent than earlier pandemics in the last 100 years.  Unless preparedness improves, epidemics are going to be costly in terms of direct and indirect impacts including ripple, spillover, and wider societal impacts.

The United Nations and WHO defined preparedness as the ability (knowledge, capacities, and organizational systems) to anticipate, detect and respond effectively to, and recover from, the impact of likely, imminent or current health emergencies, hazards, events or conditions.

Preparedness means putting in place mechanisms that will allow national authorities, multilateral organizations and relief organizations to be aware of risks and deploy staff and resources quickly once a crisis strikes.  With IPPC, countries will be able to channel their resources to deploy enormous amounts of funds for pandemic preparedness, thus reducing their healthcare burden in the long term. This allows resources to be allocated to essential nation-building services and infrastructure development.