PERSONA
She recalls that the 1918 influenza pandemic killed more than 50 million people around the world, in India alone, 17 million lost their lives and so her movie cameras rivet around a potential global scenario. Emerging epidemics have a propensity to burst anywhere and anytime because of fast changing global environment.
THEME
In populous countries, people live in dense pockets in the overburdened urban swathes. Not only that they travel in crowded public transports and if an infected, suffering from a contagious infection, sneezes or coughs, there is an instant spreading of the infection. Virus, the unseen enemy, infects people who are generally oblivious of the lurking threat.
According to her, in case of India,
The seasonal flu shot is the best tool. There is some evidence to show that taking the flu shot two years in a row gives you more protection than if you skipped a year. There is also some evidence on how people receiving a flu shot for the first time have the strongest immune protection reaction, while other studies say this isn’t true. India’s small pox eradication campaign is the most successful healthcare drive in history. During the time more than 100,000 health workers visited over 100 million households to eradicate small pox. So, India has a blueprint to deal with a future pandemic.
Volume 3 | Issue 3 | July-September 2018
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NEWSCOPE
During outbreak of such epidemics, people are advised to be cautious to mount their own defense to protect themselves. In India, a sea of humanity moves every day from one place to another and in case of outbreak of such diseases, travelling of infection can be very fast.
there is a heavy burden of noncommunicable diseases, like diabetes, heart diseases and other chronic diseases that often compromise immunity. Deaths from flu are higher in diabetics than the general population.
RESEARCH
She says reports are in circulation that new strains of influenza are infecting birds in China, but the day
might not be far away when these microbes may learn clandestine art of migrating from birds to human beings.
ISSUES
The Director of the film minces no words to articulate her views on the unseen enemy. Ebola, for example, may have emerged in West Africa, a new part of Africa, because of deforestation there. AIDS moved out of the forests of Africa to spread around the world and today there are over 20 million people living with HIV-AIDS. In addition to new virus, we now also have new drug resistant strains of once badly feared tuberculosis and malaria developing.
WELL-BEING
In addition to urbanization and living in a highly connected world, deforestation is leading to closer contact with animals, which may infect us with deadly viruses. With climate change, vectors like mosquitoes are moving up north into newer regions. Suppose, antimicrobial resistance is added to this mix, and then there will be new virus and drug resistant infections if we don’t have antibiotics that work, then you would be infected and untreatable.
TRENDS
She visualizes a scenario where India can play a major role because of its expertise in carrying out past massive healthcare programmes. Small pox eradication and polio vaccination programme vindicates the fact about country’s efficacy to turn tables. It is the need of the hour that such an expertise was implemented for elimination of infectious diseases to stave off threat of outbreak of pandemics in the global village.
