- How the covid-19 pandemic was visible
Back in 2012, the World Bank in its report ‘Connecting sectors and systems for health results’ had clearly indicated ‘‘…recent pandemic threats create a vivid reminder of the need to strengthen prevention and preparedness efforts. At the same time, the global landscape is undergoing major shifts including globalization, rapid urbanization, and climate change, all with profound implications for the public health agenda. Perhaps the most far-reaching shift is an epidemiological one, namely the rise of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) as the leading cause of death and disability in almost every region– even as many countries still face significant gaps in meeting the health-related MDGs and addressing major zoonotic diseases.’
Yet policy, under the influence of Neoliberalism, was unable to prioritize the importance of researching towards reaching vaccines and weakening the link of zoonotic diseases in the first place. Instead, under profit-oriented market signals, big pharmaceutical industries remained inclined to pursue relatively trivial products like body creams, and put little mind and finances to the growing presence of coronavirus related outbreaks, including such epidemics as SARS– way back in the early years of the 21st century– and MERS. At the same time, under the neoliberal assault, public sector institutions and regulation agencies continued to get weakened over time, and a similar effort from the public sector institutions, like that at the time of coming up with the Salk vaccine for polio, was nowhere to be seen.
This lapse is now being realized in many policy corridors, and the recent report ‘Preventing the next pandemic: zoonotic diseases and how to break the chain of transmission’ is one such important step in mending this significant policy gap. Introducing the Report, Jimmy Smith, Director General of the International Livestock Research Institute, highlighted ‘…this collaborative report [is] by scientists of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)… and [other] multilateral agencies and leading universities and research institutions. It is altogether fitting that environment, livestock and medical expertise should join up to help understand and stem the rise of human contagions…. United and proactive in moving a healthy people-animal-environment development agenda forward, governments, agencies and communities together can stop future zoonoses from happening… This report is an early attempt to outline ways by which institutions of all kinds –in government, business and civil society—might work together to create such a legacy.’
With regard to an immediate response to the current pandemic, the Report highlights ‘a public health response must be mounted, financed and managed. Maintaining the global food system is a top priority, as is providing additional social protection for poor, vulnerable and marginalized populations
The Report recommends a multidisciplinary way to effectively deal with zoonoses, both in terms of management and prevention, by adopting one umbrella approach in shape of ‘One Health’, in turn, covering two sub-approaches ‘EcoHealth’ and ‘Planetary Health’. The Report makes the recommendation as follows ‘the One Health approach can be defined as the collaborative effort across multiple disciplines to attain optimal health for people, animals and the environment. This approach has emerged as a key tool for preventing and managing diseases occurring at the interface of human, animal and environment health. At the same time, a closely related approach, known as “EcoHealth” has been defined as a set of systemic, participatory approaches necessary to understanding and promoting both health and well-being in the context of social and ecological interactions… Both the One Health and EcoHealth approaches emphasize multidisciplinary collaboration for holistic interventions that attain not only human health goals but also animal and environment health targets, the latter two of which are central to improving the control of neglected and emerging infectious diseases, many of which are zoonoses… A third concept, “Planetary Health,” focuses on human health in relation to global sustainability. As none of these terms has an agreed or standardized definition, and given their convergence and similarities, this assessment report adopts One Health as the umbrella term, as it can be most easily understood by decision makers and the general public.’
In the wake of the pandemic, similar to the assertion of taking a multidisciplinary approach, IMF (International Monetary Fund) also recently highlighted the importance of such a collaborative approach between the public health sector and economic policymaking. This is indeed a much needed approach, which needs to be adopted by policymakers. Similarly, policymakers in Pakistan should also look to actively take this multidisciplinary approach, and come up with a wholesome approach to deal with economic, healthcare, environment, and welfare concerns.
With regard to an immediate response to the current pandemic, the Report highlights ‘a public health response must be mounted, financed and managed. Maintaining the global food system is a top priority, as is providing additional social protection for poor, vulnerable and marginalized populations. A clear exit strategy from pandemic responses is needed, as are sustainable ways of re-building damaged economies while not sacrificing long-term social and environmental achievements… zoonoses are complex; responsibility for their prevention and control falls across several sectors– environment, agriculture, health, trade and commerce. Approaches to dealing with these diseases to date have been inadequately coordinated across these multiple dimensions… Successful control of zoonoses requires strong policy frameworks and judicious legal mechanisms to accompany policy frameworks. It also demands well-functioning institutions that have adequate capacity, adequate financing and a clear plan for implementing interventions.’
An important emphasis of the Report is towards asking for greater political ownership of effectively dealing with zoonotic diseases. In this regards, the Report indicates ‘Our present crisis in 2020 provides us with an opportunity to “build back better.” Collectively, we need to shift from short-term political responses to long-term political commitments to secure human, animal and environment health. Sustaining all life on Earth depends on it.’
