Last year, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the United Nations General Assembly marked 27 December as the international day of Epidemic Preparedness to advocate the global partnership against epidemics.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern as it devastated human health and destroyed long-term socio-economic development across the world. Thus, there is an urgent need to have a resilient and robust health system, quality education, advocacy programmes on epidemics at the local, national and international levels as effective measures to prevent and respond to epidemics.
Despite being a resource-constrained country, the government of Pakistan has mounted a coordinated national effort using the best available resources and strengthened coordination between provincial and federal governments for a uniform and effective response to the COVID-19 public health emergency. The government has focused on 4 major areas, surveillance, management, response, and coordination. Effective coordination has been at the core of epidemic containment.
Covid-19 is a human tragedy, but it gives us opportunities to think about how we can prepare our country for the next health threat and the tools that need to create a better community. We need to raise awareness and implement a preparedness plan as it requires constant vigilance. To stop the next health threat in its tracks, there should be a proper monitoring system, upgraded laboratories and training the disease detectives of tomorrow.
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