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.
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
29
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 non-
communicable
diseases,
like
diabetes, heart diseases and
other chronic diseases that often
compromise immunity. Deaths from
flu are higher in diabetics than the
general population.
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.
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.
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, anti-
microbial 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.
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.