By 1. Ekta Bisht, 2. Simran Jeet Singh, (III Professional Year), 3. Dr.Gurpreet Singh Preet (Phd. IInd year, Vet medicine, GADVASU Ludhiana)
ebisht67@gmail.com, simranjeets140@gmail.com, gurpreet754@gmail.com
Zoonotic diseases are common throughout the world and constitute an important threat to human health in developing countries like India. Zoonotic diseases are those diseases which are transmissible from animals to humans and vice-versa. Pandemic is an epidemic of disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide.
In India, unfortunately human and veterinary diseases have been treated as separate fields and medical and veterinary medical does not communicate and or collaborate with each other very well. But to control zoonotic diseases, we have to stand united i.e. the collaboration between medical fraternity and veterinarians should be increased and diversified regarding humans’ and animals’ health.
Role of Veterinarians:
Veterinary public health is an important element of public health activities devoted to the application of professional veterinary skills, knowledge, and resources for the protection and improvement of public health. Veterinarians can play an important role globally in public health to control zoonoses including India. Public health veterinarians can also work on issues such as, prevention and eradication of zoonoses, infectious disease outbreak investigations, food safety and protection, food-borne illness investigations, or environmental health issues, such as vector control or air or water quality, as well as occupational exposures.
During pandemic some owners are not able to serve their livestock with full potential management causing their death due to starvation, lack of care and management. Stray animals don’t get food which leads to their death and their carcass remains lying on the ground which can be a potential threat to spread of that disease to other animals and also to humans.
Globalization has resulted in the unparalleled movement of people, animals and goods across national borders, which in turn has fuelled the international spread of zoonotic infections. Many of the zoonoses are trans-boundary diseases; they spread across borders from their origin, to impact on trade, commerce, tourism and consumers’ confidence with devastating economic consequences.
Veterinarian’s role becomes significant to check livestock and their products at meat inspection point before they are consumed by humans and fed to other animals so that products are disease free and don’t cause any harm to other animals and humans.
The vast majority of zoonotic diseases in humans, as well as potential zoonotic diseases that the companion animals are capable of transmitting are documented. Since zoonoses are diseases of animals that can infect humans, therefore veterinarians, physicians, and public health officials need to work more closely together to control, prevent and understand them. The veterinary profession contributes to improvement of human health by advancing biomedical and comparative medical research, preventing and addressing zoonotic diseases and enhancing environmental and ecosystem health as well. The veterinarian possesses qualities which can be directed to the investigation and management of human diseases and, although primarily trained to deal with diseases of lower animals, has a herd or population approach to the practice of medicine.The veterinarian must recognise and quarantine infected animals both within herds and at borders where animals are imported.
Clients can also be educated by veterinary personnels of the possible risk of contacting zoonoses through ingestion of raw or undercooked animal products such as milk and meat. Owners with immunocompromised conditions, who insist on keeping their companion pets for psychological benefits, can have them regularly check for zoonotic diseases to ensure that they do not pose any threat to them.
Routine disease surveillance and monitoring as well as disease reporting will help in providing disease records and identifying outbreaks immediately in areas where disease hasn’t started spreading. It also includes development and production of biologicals, the control of animal populations which may serve as reservoirs of zoonotic pathogens, participation in outbreak investigations, prevention and control.
Veterinarians should try building effective collaboration between animal and human health sectors, improving surveillance for early detection of disease threats in animals where disease hasn’t started spreading, strengthening laboratory diagnostic capacities for novel pathogens, improving case management and infection control, integrating vector control management, reducing transmission through social and behavioural interventions, enhancing political commitment, national planning and coordination mechanisms, strengthening preparedness, surveillance and response, developing a multi-sectoral preparedness and response plans for control of pandemic, Enhancing regional and international cooperation and collaboration, generating insights and adding value to health research and development especially in human sector.
The major limitation in controlling the zoonotic infections include the lack of effective collaboration between the animal and human health sectors under the concept of “One Health” approach, which links the human with the animal health sector integrating the animal and human disease surveillance and response system that could, otherwise have helped controlling the zoonotic infections in animal reservoirs, enable early outbreak detection, and prevent deadly epidemics and pandemic. Therefore, the medical and veterinary fraternities must come together and stand united to avoid and/or control any pandemic.
Conclusion:
The lesson of our present time is that emerging zoonotic infections are unexpected and unpredictable events. Another lesson that has been learned is that any disease outbreak anywhere today could be a problem for the world tomorrow as we have seen in case of COVID-19. These novel diseases will continue to confront and challenge the national health authorities’ resilience and responsiveness to respond in a timely manner. Likewise, the ability of regional and global communities to cooperate to control these diseases that cross national boundaries will be a real test for the global health security.
While the global efforts should continue to fill the current gaps in knowledge associated with the origin and transmission of many zoonotic infections much of which are novel in origin, much greater regional cooperation would be needed to protect the health of the people from all types of zoonotic infections. The current situation in the world with regards to the global and regional response to COVID-19 should trigger a clear and articulated need for establishing a sustainable public health programme for detection, prevention and control of emerging pandemic in the world in the upcoming time.
