BHUBANESWAR: Amid concern over a new wave of pneumonia in China and disease X, Odisha government is set to strengthen seven of its public health laboratories in different regions to pilot a project on zoonotic diseases that will help keep track of future pandemics in the state.
As warned by WHO, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is focusing on at least 20 zoonotic diseases including anthrax, scrub typhus, rabies, swine flu, bird flu, bovine tuberculosis, Nipah, brucellosis, blastomycosis, psittacosis, trichinosis, cat scratch disease and histoplasmosis. Sources said the ministry has asked Rajasthan and Odisha to pilot the project - ‘One Health’ that envisages carrying out surveillance of important bacterial, viral and parasitic infections of zoonotic as well as trans-boundary pathogens.
As part of the project, the government would strengthen its regional public health laboratories for diagnostic tests and develop additional methodologies when required for the surveillance and understanding the spread of emerging diseases, dubbed as disease X. Since risk of infectious pathogens capable of jumping the barriers of species is increasing post-Covid, mainly because of the potential of novel infectious agents to spread rapidly around the globe due to increased travel, food habits and trade across borders, health experts are leaving no stone unturned to remain prepared for the future pandemics that could be caused by a bacteria or a virus that is currently unknown.
Scientists estimate that three out of every four new or emerging infectious diseases in people come from animals and more than six out of every 10 known infectious diseases in people can be spread from animals. Public health director Dr Niranjan Mishra said animals can sometimes carry harmful germs that can spread to people and cause illness, which are known as zoonotic diseases and such diseases have devastating impacts on animals, humans, health systems, and economies. “As advised by the health ministry and WHO, we are strengthening at least seven public health labs in the first phase. Three identified locations are the medical colleges and hospitals at Koraput, Balangir and Baripada. We will soon shortlist four other locations,” he said.
The surveillance will be intensified in an integrated way with the involvement of all stakeholders, including the wildlife, agriculture, veterinary and disaster management wings. After the capacity building of testing facilities and manpower, integration of surveillance mechanisms, community engagement and diagnosis and treatment will be the primary focus. A two-day orientation progarmme was recently conducted with experts from various global and national institutions like Centre for Disease Control (CDC), USA, WHO and National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to discuss an unique action plan for the project.