The world as well as Bangladesh paid a heavy price in the past due to sheer apathy to public health concerns. That is why, despite repeated warnings by the experts of an impending pandemic, governments around the world did not pay much attention. As a result, millions of people died because of Covid-19 outbreak. We all know this but what we do not know is the fact that many such pandemics are in the offing.
At least this is what our experts are saying. Zoonotic transmission is a serious threat to public health. To put it in plain words, zoonotic diseases are kind of infections that are caused by transmission of harmful bacteria or pathogens from animals to humans and vice versa. This kind of pathogen transmission can lead to serious epidemics. In the past, we have seen many such epidemics such as bird flu, Nipah virus outbreak and Covid-19 wreaking havoc on public lives. In fact, Nipah virus infection has proved to be the deadliest among all communicable diseases in Bangladesh in consideration of the mortality rate. Experts warn that many such zoonotic diseases may emerge in near future owing to human-animal interactions.
Around one billion cases of illness and millions of deaths are reported every year from zoonoses. The mortality rate caused by zoonotic diseases is also high in our country. This calls for serious and immediate plans to minimise the possibility of such disease which may lead to devastating consequences.
To tackle such a situation, the world is pushing for One Health --- a unified approach to human, animal, and environmental health. This aims to control the outbreak of any zoonotic diseases by planning beforehand and coming up with solid action plan. It is encouraging to know that Bangladesh has also been putting emphasis on this and the One Health Secretariat was established at the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) back in 2016.
However, more needs to be done in this regard. Qualitative research with a focus on such communicable diseases and dangerous pathogens should be carried out so that epidemic control gets more effective. For that to happen, we need to find ways for getting a chunk of global funds allocated for combating such diseases. We urge policymakers to concentrate more on proactive measures rather than reactive responses to ward off future pandemics.