Our message for change is clear: no more pandemics. If we fail to take this goal seriously, we will condemn the world to successive catastrophes,” these hopeful lines are from a report titled as “Covid-19: Make it the last pandemic” and published in May. This report is prepared by an independent panel appointed by the WHO for pandemic preparedness and response. It focuses on how pandemic outbreak becomes global.Further, the report says Covid-19 pandemic is a "21st-century Chernobyl moment" that could have been avoided. However, the 86-page report consists of aspirations and possibilities with a roadmap to pandemic preparedness.
Further, the report recommends a strong political commitment, a global surveillance on pandemic, an effective national coordination and an elevated leadership in health should be included in pandemic preparedness. Recently, the Odisha Government by taking a next step forward has announced to make disaster and pandemic preparedness a part of high school and college curriculum.
And for the existing and future Government employees, it is an essential skill with the aim to make the State ready to tackle any biological or climatic disaster. In a nutshell, the Odish Government wants to introduce an unique learning and training methodology to handle the disaster and pandemic, just like a Tier 1- B school management style, no doubt with a sustainable approach. Let’s discuss this pandemic preparedness in three folds. First fold is a fictional novel model, second is Gandhian and third is Surat city model. “The Plague” by Albert Camus is a novel based on the plague pandemic in large Algerian city of Oran.
The narratives depict personal misery, human sufferings and collective responsibility. The people of the Oran city are forced to quarantine due to outbreak of pandemic. Many want to flee from the city.
In later part of the novel, it shows that people have realised that plague pandemic is a community disaster and it needs collective participation. Oran citizens give up their selfish obsession and adopt a greater social responsibility. The major character of this novel Dr Rieux knows that plague is not over. It will incubate somewhere and it may outbreak again. The second fold is all about Gandhian approach to pandemic preparedness. Many of us must be aware of 1904 Black Plague outbreak in Johannesburg, South Africa. The epicentre was Location area of Johannesburg.
Location was ghetto term used by the natives to the area where Indian coolies resided. Young Mohandas Gandhi and Madanjeet, Editor of the Indian Opinion, were the two who took the lead and helped Indians coolies in fight against plague pandemic.
The fight was in two fronts; one was with plague pandemic and another was with prejudice and propaganda. Gandhi and Madanjeet used a warehouse as quarantine centre. They started to spread awareness about sanitation, symptoms of plague and personal hygiene.
Kasturba, wife of Mohandas Gandhi on the other hand involved herself in women participation in pandemic. Actually, Black Plague pandemic management by Gandhiji was all about community involvement, women’s participation and leadership management. Before this event in the year 1896 Gandhi returned to India from South Africa to bring back his wife Kasturba and his sons.
Bombay, now Mumbai, was in the pick of Great Plague at that time. There were apprehensions that it might spread to nearby cities. Gandhi participated in pandemic management in Rajkot. He formed ward committee, satiation committee, village committee to manage the pandemic at micro level. But it was heavily opposed at that time.
According to Gandhi, Government can only provide the institutional support or group establishment but for a healthy society we need individual preparedness. The third fold is all about Plague outbreak in Surat in 1994. The plague in surat was pneumonic plague. 56 deaths were reported across India. Surat became a ghost town as nearly 2 lakh people fled the city. Then Municipal SR Rao took the challenge and transformed the city to the second cleanest city in India. The approach he followed was “perform or perish”. Further he just showed a pyrotechnics of operation and strategic management in Government machinery.
End of each pandemic gives a wakeup call for a better pandemic preparedness. We need to be careful and introspective in preparedness for future pandemics.
The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) is an independent monitoring and accountability body of the World Bank and World Health Organization, which says in its report “A World in Disorder” how the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed a collective failure in pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
Further, the GPMB revealed that epidemics like Ebola, influenza, Swine Flu and SARS were difficult to manage because of conflict, migration and weak State power. So, while making a pandemic preparedness action plan, the Odisha Government must adopt a better window for introspection and acceptance. The students must be taught to adopt inclusive and general practice at all societal level interventions.
Pandemic preparedness is a 360 degree approach study. So inputs from all the subjects like sociology to management and psychology to basic health science should be incorporated. Human rights and social, economic and environmental justice which are the key concerns during the pandemic must beincluded also. We need ideas from CSOs, field workers, doctors to crush the pandemic in sync.
The Naveen Government wants to have a “yoddha” (warrior) in every home of Odisha. These warriors will be the ambassadors for pandemic preparedness of Odisha. Just like Gandhian pandemic management, Odisha wants a micro level management. Disaster management experiences have already helped Odisha to control the pandemic. The pandemic preparedness should be like a culture to be transmitted from one generation to another and it should be a norm to follow.
Last three decades, the world has experienced many epidemics and pandemics such as Ebola, SARS, Zika, swine flu, bird flu, West Nile and plague etc. Vaccine is not the Holy Grail. We need to understand that we are living in the same world with animals, plants and environment.
We should come out of this impression that we are some kind of special and blessed animals. But actually we are also very prone to be infected by virus like other animals. So only our own preparedness can save us.
(Dr Parida is Assistant Professor in Sophitorium Group of Institutions, Khordha. Ph: 8456879522)
