India pandemic failure
- swine flu
In the early 1980s,
doctors in California found that
some patients were immuno-compromised for
no known reason.
Blood samples of the patients
were sent to the Centre for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.
The CDC wrote to
National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda,
to look at the problem.
Gallo,
who had earlier discovered
the human leukemia-causing viruses,
HTLV1and HTLV2,
found that
the blood of all the patients
had another slow-growing virus
which he called HTLV3,
and
which we now know as HIV that causes AIDS.
A similar event took place in France;
the lab was the famed Institut Pasteur
and the scientist, Luc Montagnier.
He discovered the same virus,
actually before Bob Gallo
and
received a Nobel Prize last year.
If the cases referred to Montagnier and Gallo
had occurred in India,
the doctors would have first ignored it.
Then,
we have no labs like CDC or Institut Pasteur.
The government would have initially denied that
there was a problem.
When they could not have done that any more,
they would have said that
the problem is not severe � and that they
are doing everything to take care of it.
So, don�t worry; it is now contained.
After thousands were infected and destined to die,
a foreign agency would have stepped in
as happened with arsenic contamination of
well water in eastern India.
Within a year of the discovery of HIV,
I have contacted to NIH for remarks of Bob Gallo.
He pointed out that the AIDS virus
had reached Iran via the Atlantic
and Thailand via the Pacific.
India seemed to be the only land mass,
fortunately
isolated by mountains and sea,
that was free of HIV.
Director of NIH offered INDIA
a million HIV detection kits free of cost
to test visitors arriving by sea or air.
The director-general of
Indian Council of Medical Research
How he acted on the information of
new virus and the offer of the kit to detect it.
But
there was not even an acknowledgement.
Reason:
How can anyone living in a glorified village
know of something important that
Delhi does not know?
We don�t even know
how to do proper and honest epidemiology.
The figure that NACO gave last year
of number of people who are sero-positive for HIV,
is a gross under-estimate.
It took weeks for the
National Institute of Communicable Diseases in Delhi
to tell us that it was plague in Surat
and no one was bothered to look into the possibility
of its being a surreptitious act of biological warfare.
In contrast to this,
when a confirmed epidemic of measles
occurred in the US a few years ago,
they traced it to a Romanian who unwittingly
brought the infection with her from Europe.
What has happened in India recently
in respect of swine flu,
is reminiscent of what happened
with SARS some years ago.
Today,
the data on incidence provided to us is unreliable.
What about the villages?
Very few places in India have had
facilities for testing for swine flu.
Till recently,
all the samples had to be sent to the
National Institute of Virology in Pune.
Interestingly,
no government diagnostic laboratory in the country
is accredited with the
National Accreditation Board of Laboratories.
Therefore,
one is justified in questioning
the reliability of most government labs.
There has been no flow of
reliable information from the government.
An unnecessary panic has been created
in spite of the chance of death due to
swine flu being less than one in a hundred.
Compare this with
malaria, tuberculosis or AIDS.
Professional organisations like the
Medical Council of India,
Indian Medical Association (IMA),
and
the Association of Physicians of India,
have made no statements.
There has not been enough supply
of drugs used for swine flu.
The quality of care in government hospitals
has continuously declined over the last four decades.
Most of the commercial hospitals
are devoid of any code of ethics.
Most doctors
do not know how to differentially
diagnose swine flu.
The masks
have not been appropriately certified.
Pandemics, today,
are dealt by politicians and bureaucrats
who know little about the problem
and not by experts
who would be free to express their expert opinion.
In the case of H1N1,
shouldn�t the responsibility of handling the
problem
have been of the
department of health research
and
Indian Council of Medical Research,
without any undue pressure on them
so that they could act professionally
and
not be obliged to do what is politically correct
or
expedient from the government�s point of view?
Why didn�t the Centre put together a team
of real experts and ask them to prepare an authoritative,
professionally accurate and well-presented statement
for public release in all languages using all forms of media,
and professional communicators
who were not chosen
on the basis of the lowest quotation?
To handle pandemics concerning
humans, animals or plants,
we should consider taking the following steps:
Make it the responsibility of the government
which would mean improving the standard
of all government hospitals and setting up
a workable system of rural medical and healthcare;
have government-run diagnostic labs equipped and accredited,
to do the tests required for controlling pandemics;
the Centre and states should set up
health advisory councils consisting of courageous,
honest, professionally competent people
with impeccable integrity and high public credibility
� something on the lines of the economic advisory council.
The government
should set up a centre
for human disease control,
a centre for animal disease control,
and
a centre for plant disease control,
to take care of rare, new and exotic diseases,
with appropriate linkages;
our National Institute of Epidemiology must be totally reorganised
and well-equipped to discharge its responsibility
in case of a pandemic;
an appropriate system to prevent, monitor, counter
and react in real time to all acts of biological
warfare against the country,
should be set up;
our medical curriculae and syllabus
should be appropriately revised to prepare
medical graduates to recognise and deal with new,
rare and exotic diseases and pandemics;
politicians and bureaucrats
must refrain from making statements
based on inadequate knowledge and understanding,
the government must establish linkages
with professional organisations such as the IMA,
whose advice and help should be sought
through an organised structure in case of a pandemic;
a similar interface should be set up with other
relevant professional groups concerned with
medical and healthcare and representing civil society;
no vaccine for a pandemic should be adopted in the country
without adequate scrutiny and trials,
and; if a pandemic hasn�t reached India,
a system of checking visitors arriving by air or sea
at the point of arrival,
must be put in place.
Sriram Savarkar ©
Hinduism is more a way of life than a method of worship.
Dharmo Rakshati Rakshithaha
If you protect Dharma, Dharma will in turn protect you.
Hindus, If people slap you once, slap them twice!
- swine flu
In the early 1980s,
doctors in California found that
some patients were immuno-compromised for
no known reason.
Blood samples of the patients
were sent to the Centre for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.
The CDC wrote to
National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda,
to look at the problem.
Gallo,
who had earlier discovered
the human leukemia-causing viruses,
HTLV1and HTLV2,
found that
the blood of all the patients
had another slow-growing virus
which he called HTLV3,
and
which we now know as HIV that causes AIDS.
A similar event took place in France;
the lab was the famed Institut Pasteur
and the scientist, Luc Montagnier.
He discovered the same virus,
actually before Bob Gallo
and
received a Nobel Prize last year.
If the cases referred to Montagnier and Gallo
had occurred in India,
the doctors would have first ignored it.
Then,
we have no labs like CDC or Institut Pasteur.
The government would have initially denied that
there was a problem.
When they could not have done that any more,
they would have said that
the problem is not severe � and that they
are doing everything to take care of it.
So, don�t worry; it is now contained.
After thousands were infected and destined to die,
a foreign agency would have stepped in
as happened with arsenic contamination of
well water in eastern India.
Within a year of the discovery of HIV,
I have contacted to NIH for remarks of Bob Gallo.
He pointed out that the AIDS virus
had reached Iran via the Atlantic
and Thailand via the Pacific.
India seemed to be the only land mass,
fortunately
isolated by mountains and sea,
that was free of HIV.
Director of NIH offered INDIA
a million HIV detection kits free of cost
to test visitors arriving by sea or air.
The director-general of
Indian Council of Medical Research
How he acted on the information of
new virus and the offer of the kit to detect it.
But
there was not even an acknowledgement.
Reason:
How can anyone living in a glorified village
know of something important that
Delhi does not know?
We don�t even know
how to do proper and honest epidemiology.
The figure that NACO gave last year
of number of people who are sero-positive for HIV,
is a gross under-estimate.
It took weeks for the
National Institute of Communicable Diseases in Delhi
to tell us that it was plague in Surat
and no one was bothered to look into the possibility
of its being a surreptitious act of biological warfare.
In contrast to this,
when a confirmed epidemic of measles
occurred in the US a few years ago,
they traced it to a Romanian who unwittingly
brought the infection with her from Europe.
What has happened in India recently
in respect of swine flu,
is reminiscent of what happened
with SARS some years ago.
Today,
the data on incidence provided to us is unreliable.
What about the villages?
Very few places in India have had
facilities for testing for swine flu.
Till recently,
all the samples had to be sent to the
National Institute of Virology in Pune.
Interestingly,
no government diagnostic laboratory in the country
is accredited with the
National Accreditation Board of Laboratories.
Therefore,
one is justified in questioning
the reliability of most government labs.
There has been no flow of
reliable information from the government.
An unnecessary panic has been created
in spite of the chance of death due to
swine flu being less than one in a hundred.
Compare this with
malaria, tuberculosis or AIDS.
Professional organisations like the
Medical Council of India,
Indian Medical Association (IMA),
and
the Association of Physicians of India,
have made no statements.
There has not been enough supply
of drugs used for swine flu.
The quality of care in government hospitals
has continuously declined over the last four decades.
Most of the commercial hospitals
are devoid of any code of ethics.
Most doctors
do not know how to differentially
diagnose swine flu.
The masks
have not been appropriately certified.
Pandemics, today,
are dealt by politicians and bureaucrats
who know little about the problem
and not by experts
who would be free to express their expert opinion.
In the case of H1N1,
shouldn�t the responsibility of handling the
problem
have been of the
department of health research
and
Indian Council of Medical Research,
without any undue pressure on them
so that they could act professionally
and
not be obliged to do what is politically correct
or
expedient from the government�s point of view?
Why didn�t the Centre put together a team
of real experts and ask them to prepare an authoritative,
professionally accurate and well-presented statement
for public release in all languages using all forms of media,
and professional communicators
who were not chosen
on the basis of the lowest quotation?
To handle pandemics concerning
humans, animals or plants,
we should consider taking the following steps:
Make it the responsibility of the government
which would mean improving the standard
of all government hospitals and setting up
a workable system of rural medical and healthcare;
have government-run diagnostic labs equipped and accredited,
to do the tests required for controlling pandemics;
the Centre and states should set up
health advisory councils consisting of courageous,
honest, professionally competent people
with impeccable integrity and high public credibility
� something on the lines of the economic advisory council.
The government
should set up a centre
for human disease control,
a centre for animal disease control,
and
a centre for plant disease control,
to take care of rare, new and exotic diseases,
with appropriate linkages;
our National Institute of Epidemiology must be totally reorganised
and well-equipped to discharge its responsibility
in case of a pandemic;
an appropriate system to prevent, monitor, counter
and react in real time to all acts of biological
warfare against the country,
should be set up;
our medical curriculae and syllabus
should be appropriately revised to prepare
medical graduates to recognise and deal with new,
rare and exotic diseases and pandemics;
politicians and bureaucrats
must refrain from making statements
based on inadequate knowledge and understanding,
the government must establish linkages
with professional organisations such as the IMA,
whose advice and help should be sought
through an organised structure in case of a pandemic;
a similar interface should be set up with other
relevant professional groups concerned with
medical and healthcare and representing civil society;
no vaccine for a pandemic should be adopted in the country
without adequate scrutiny and trials,
and; if a pandemic hasn�t reached India,
a system of checking visitors arriving by air or sea
at the point of arrival,
must be put in place.
Sriram Savarkar ©
Hinduism is more a way of life than a method of worship.
Dharmo Rakshati Rakshithaha
If you protect Dharma, Dharma will in turn protect you.
Hindus, If people slap you once, slap them twice!
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