IJVPH

Unraveling the Threads of Pandemics: A Historical Examination for Future Resilience
Volume 10 | Issue 1 | June 2024
AUTHOR(S)
Samir Das, Mahua G Choudhury, A Arun Prince Milton, Arnab Sen, Sandeep Ghatak

ABSTRACT

Throughout history, mankind has witnessed many pandemics that have resulted from the emergence and spread of pandemic potential pathogens. Various pandemics such as plague, smallpox, influenza, cholera, AIDS, and the most recent Covid-19 have shattered humanity to its core. The main cause of the past and the present pandemic is due to the spillover of the zoonotic pathogens from animals to humans which mainly happened as a result of intensification of animal husbandry, hunting, and global trade activities. These pandemics have taught mankind to understand the means of transmission of these contagions and how to prevent them. Preventive measures like quarantine, isolation, and border security have helped to prevent the spread of these infectious agents upto a certain extent. Over centuries when the medical facilities were not up to date, these preventive measures helped in controlling the spread of these diseases. Even for the recent Covid-19 pandemic, these containment and preventive measures are used to contain the pathogen. Interventions like rapid diagnostic testing, contact tracing, antibiotic use, vaccine development and production, etc are the ways to deal with the severity of such pandemics. Over the centuries, we have learnt various lessons as to how to deal with a pandemic and how to control its spread. The lessons that we have learnt and gained will help us to tackle any upcoming pandemic of even unknown origin.

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DOI
https://doi.org/10.62418/ijvph.10.1.2024.20-30
How to cite this article:
Corresponding author’s email ID: drsamirvph@yahoo.com, ghataksnd@rediffmail.com
Citation: Das S, Choudhury MG, Milton AAP, Sen A and Ghatak S. Unraveling the Threads of Pandemics: A Historical Examination for Future Resilience. Indian Journal of Veterinary Public Health. 2024; 10(1): 20-30.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.62418/ijvph.10.1.2024.20-30