From our fast-paced lives, we were forced to halt only to continue into a slow
slog of misery where the future is uncertain. As already established, the coronavirus
disease-2019 (COVID-19) has its origins from Wuhan, China. It is characterized by a
rapid human to human transmission of coronavirus which may lead to severe
complications of other diseases and even death. With the alarming rate and exhilarating
spread of the virus across international borders- the number of cases, countries
affected, and death tolls rose overwhelmingly. Many countries were placed under
enforced lockdowns, strict quarantine protocols were implemented, travels were
restricted, establishments were closed while some eventually went bankrupt, and
millions of workers were laid off from work- the whole world was paralyzed. COVID-19
has laid bare the truth: when the time came, the world was still not ready. So how do we
actually combat this disaster? What strategies can we use to protect populations,
control the virus's spread, prevent our health care systems from becoming
overburdened, and limit the epidemic's impacts on society?
A study by Peter Daszak in 2020 proposed three key steps to help reduce the
risk of a future epidemic and/or pandemic:
1. Surveillance of wildlife for high-risk pathogens. We need to support our
scientists in working to further study these biomedical disasters so that we can
catalog them, develop a reference library for rapid pathogen identification and
risk assessment, and test vaccines and therapies against them.
2. Surveillance and risk reduction in people at high risk of contact with
wildlife. This ‘pre-outbreak surveillance’ strategy can be coordinated with
different sectors of public health, healthcare, agriculture and forestry.
3. Improve biosecurity of the wildlife trade and animal markets. We need to
standardize and manage wildlife trade as a public health and security issue.
The Philippines implemented the CODE or Coordinated Operations to
Defeat Epidemic. The CODE is a patient- and community-focused response strategy
with key elements incorporated from the Prevent-Detect-Isolate-Test-Treat strategy.
The World Health Organization also released various strategic preparedness and
response plans to guide the efforts of all national and international partners in
developing ways to prevent the pandemic. These are mitigation to slow the spread of
the virus to delay and reduce the height of the epidemic's peak and suppression to
rapidly flatten the epidemic's curve, prevent the health care system from being
overwhelmed, and eradicate the virus.
Preparedness makes economic sense, and we have developed tools and models
for multi-sectoral cooperation. Learning from the pandemic and building on the previous
progress should guide our steps to strengthen Health Security and thus help achieve
the Sustainable Development Goals.
In all these, we ought to remember COVID-19 will not be the world’s last health
emergency and there is an urgent need for sustainable health emergency preparedness
to deal with the next one.