HOW TO BEAT VIRUSES AND OTHER BIOTHREATS

Last September, health ministers from G20 nations, including India, met in Rome to discuss pandemic threats from nature.

- MAJOR GENERAL PARTAP NARWAL (RETD)

Biological Weapons Convention experts, meanwhile, gathered in Geneva, deliberating on rising threats from terrorists misusing microbes. Around the same time, Kerala was hit by a Nipah virus outbreak, the third such instance since 2018. Such biological threats, both natural and manmade, have become more frequent and complex.

The Covid-19 pandemic has taught us that it is ideal to prevent biothreats and control them early, before they explode catastrophically. Building further on the lessons learnt, India needs to assess the dynamics of existing biothreats and enhance the preparedness for averting them and managing them better.

Although pandemics originating from nature are generally taken as inevitable, it is human activity which is altering the natural history of infectious diseases and biothreats. Almost three-fourths of Emerging Infectious Diseases or newer infectious diseases are zoonotic, that is, coming from animals. Science has proven that fragmentation of wildlife habitat is birthing natural biothreats by bringing populations and livestock into closer and more frequent contact with wildlife. The geo-climatic and socioeconomic conditions make India particularly prone to zoonotic diseases. Two other natural biothreats to India are the increasing resistance of microbes to available antimicrobials and insect-borne diseases like dengue fever.