A major reason for the spread of crippling diseases is climate change, as warmer temperatures expand the area where mosquitoes thrive. Need of the hour is to prevent the manifestation of viruses through environmental conservation
The rising threat of infectious diseases has reached such a pitch that recently, Tata Motors had to consider renaming its latest hatchback Zica due to the name sounding very similar to the Zika virus, whose outbreak has kept the entire global community on tenterhooks.
Zika virus of the Flaviviridae virus family derives its name from the Zika forest in Uganda and is transmitted by Aedes Aegypti mosquito. In recent times, the world has borne the brunt of severe and dreadful viruses such as Ebola, Middle East respiratory syndrome, severe acute respiratory syndrome, bird flu, swine flu etc. These diseases have caused huge causalities and to make matters worse they were resistant to available medication.
An alarming surge in these crippling diseases has been due to the constant evolution of new pathogens.
In fact since 1980, new pathogens have emerged in the human population at a rate of about three each year and these have largely remained beyond the reach of conventional remedies.
The medical fraternity is under immense pressure to expedite its research and development of innovative and effective drugs in order to keep pace with the newer types of viruses breaking out each year.
Newer strains of pathogens have been the main cause in the spurt of Emerging Infectious Diseases in recent times. The outbreak is precipitated by spiralling population levels which is forcing people to live in crowded, urbanised environments, creating a ripe situation for the emergence of infectious agents.
However, EIDs are now reaching a never-before scale and spread mainly due to climate change, as warmer temperatures help shorten the incubation period of viruses carried by vectors and accelerate the maturation of larvae. This, in turn, helps the disease manifest faster.
Rampant deforestation and natural habitat loss is a significant contributory factor to climate change and plays a vital role in the rise of infectious diseases. Cleared forestland collects rainwater better than forested land, as a result, a more suitable breeding ground for virus is provided.
lyme disease that is on the rise in the US is an apt example of emergence of disease due to encroachment and fragmentation of forests.
Similarly, the Nipah virus, first detected in Malaysia, is a newly-discovered pathogen that is causing considerable public health concern because of its ability to infect a broad range of animals and its high lethality among humans.
The outbreak of a new virus each time results in frantic efforts to find a remedy for the same, but once the emergency subsides the human behavior especially towards the environment continues to be exploitative and this paves way for newer pathogens to take shape.
There is an urgent need to replace reactive response to EID conditions with proactive response, which not only deploys measures to control the virus outbreak, but also identifies the contributory factors and ensures that the disease does not re-occur.
An effective disease prevention and control strategy is an essential pre-requisite for a healthy economy as well. Economic progress cannot take place in an atmosphere of concern for the well-being and will impair global travel and trade.
Emerging economies such as India have a lot to loose unless the Government takes proactive initiatives that are far beyond the staple measures adopted by other nations.
India must set a new global benchmark in disease detection and timely prevention by adopting innovative methods that hinge on analysing the role of climate in the emergence of human infectious diseases.
Many studies have already been conducted on the subject of climate’s role in fostering the diseases, but India will have to go further by evolving and adapting these studies for the Indian context.
Initiating an ambitious interdisciplinary cooperation among physicians, climatologists, biologists, and social scientists can help achieve this. In addition, advanced disease surveillance technologies, integrated modeling and use of geographically-based data systems will afford more anticipatory measures by the medical community.
Understanding the linkages between climatological and ecological change as determinants of disease emergence and redistribution will ultimately help India to optimise defensive strategies besides setting global examples in diseases prevention and management.
Amid worsening climate change and unabated population growth the infectious diseases are having a free-run. For every virus that has been identified, there are hundreds that are still unknown.
The only way to safeguard the present and future is to prevent these infectious viruses from manifesting themselves in the first place through environmental conservation and prevention of climate change.