The outbreak of
Ebola virus in West Africa has been the biggest epidemic by far. Major
countries of the world have been already hit and the death toll is continually
on the rise. What makes this virus dangerous is that there are no sure-shot
ways to prevent it from spreading, and neither do the symptoms of the virus
become visible for as long as 20 days in most cases, hence, rendering border
screening methods ineffective. No Indian has been diagnosed with the Ebola
virus yet, but due to its extreme virulent nature, simply taking preventive
measures won’t be of much help. Proactive steps against the current widespread
disease must be taken.
Statistics say that
9 out of 10 infected persons die from Ebola. The major form of transmission of
the disease is by coming into contact with the body fluids of an infected
person. Keeping this into mind, Indians should dread the day it spreads into
our country. Not only is India a densely populated country, our public health
system is not of its optimum standard. Indian atmosphere is mainly humid,
especially the densely populated coastal areas like Mumbai, can become a
breeding ground for the virus. Such a scenario should be avoided at any cost.
Our health system is a socialist medley of a government that produces
and contributes private goods. We run primary health centers, hospitals, and
such. But our health system fails in doing the things that a public health
system should do; such as the analysis and control of epidemics. We lack the
intellectual precision that the public health system is not about the health of
the public; it is about public goods and R&D in the problem of public
health. This could prove to be a costly mistake in coming weeks and months, if
Ebola spreads into our land.
There are certain
legislations in India, which are quite important but are ignored in some or the
other way. One such legislation is “The Epidemic Disease Act, 1897”.
This act is a century old and has not been keeping up with the changing times.
It is perhaps the shortest statute ever made by us comprising of merely 4
sections. The first section describes the title
and the extent, the second section empowers state and central government to
take special measures and prescribe regulations that are to be observed by
public to contain the spread of disease. The third section defines penalty for
violating the regulations, whereas the fourth section gives legal protection to
the persons acting under this act. As I made out earlier, the problem of
public health is being completely neglected by our system.
It is clear that
the act needs a complete revamping in order to protect the needs of the public
health priorities which are changing with time. Perhaps
the lawmakers can follow in the footsteps of the National Disaster Management
Act, 2005 having definitions of technical terms and an unambiguous description
of all the implementing measures and agencies to be instituted in the event of
any emergency.
What is India
doing to prevent the spread of this epidemic into its boundaries?
However, India
isn’t doing everything wrong. State governments
have been corresponding with the Central government and have been gearing up
the hospitals and isolation wards to identify for Ebola treatment. The Centre
will keep track of adequacy of preparations at these hospitals. Also, Personal Protective Gear (PPE) has been
provided to the states by the Central government.
The Integrated
Disease Surveillance Programme which was established by the National Centre for
Disease Control of India in 2004 has been taking a lot of proactive steps
towards preventing the virus to enter India. International travelers by ship or
road or air, are being made to have compulsory medical checkups and are thereby
segregated into 3 categories; those who are at low risk, medium risk and high
risk. People with low risks are being advised on general safeguard from the
virus, whereas, the people with medium and high risks are being detained for
further checkups and are being kept under observation for a period of one
month. For those Indians who are abroad in countries which have been exposed to
Ebola and for the foreign nationals who are visiting India, it is their duty
and responsibility to adhere to all such regulations which have been laid down
to prevent the spreading of the Ebola virus.
The Dengue fever amidst the Ebola scare.
It
is more than fitting to write about the epidemic control regulations carried
out by our government in wake of the Dengue scourge. Since the rise in dengue
cases in the past few months, numerous campaigns have been held to spread
awareness about preventive measures from forming breeding grounds for Aedes
mosquitoes and stricter attention is paid to adherence of all such preventive
measures. With recording more than 350 cases in less than 2 months, the
government has become more serious about the issue and allowing police to make
surprise inspections in residential areas and complexes and furnishing
approximately 13,000 notices threatening arrest to the negligent persons under
IPC sections 269 and 270 for aiding further spread of diseases. Even though it
seems to be like fighting a losing battle, since we do not have relevant laws
protecting our country in the state of medical emergency, it is our duty as a
community of active and prudent citizens to be privy to the preventive measures
from dengue, Ebola, or any other disease if we want to lead a healthy life.
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