Pics: Mohan Kuthar
Media Release
Mangaluru, Oct 9: Living in harmony with the environment and animal kingdom is very critical to prevent global pandemics, said Dr Soumya Swaminathan chief scientist and deputy director - General (Programs), World Health Organisation.
Dr Soumya Swaminathan was addressing the 10th annual virtual convocation of Nitte (Deemed to be University), through a video message on Friday. It is the first educational institution in the coastal districts to conduct virtual convocation for thousands of fresh graduates. The varsity on the occasion conferred an honorary doctorate DSc, on Dr Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan chancellor, Central University of Rajasthan, chairman Governing Board Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics Pune, honorary distinguished advisor, ISRO.
Speaking on the lines of the pandemic outbreak due to Covid-19, she said that this week the world crossed 32 million known cases and over a million deaths. “But the fact is that, over years, viruses have made the jump from the animal kingdom to human beings. We have seen it with HIV, SARS1 virus, Zika with Nipah virus with Ebola.
There is also a long list of less known viruses. Most of these viruses have jumped from animals to humans. The way in which we are living in harmony with the environment and with the animal kingdom is very critical,” she stressed adding that by deforestation by urbanisation, human beings encourage the coming close contact of animals to them. It also includes illegal wildlife trade, where these animals come in contact with domesticated species. “It is believed that the SAR-CoV-2 virus originated from bats but there has been an intermediate host and that investigation is in progress.”
Socio-economic disparities impact health outcomes; this has become very clear during the pandemic. Soumya stressed that people who are most vulnerable to the virus are most marginalised, minorities in countries around the world. For example, data shows that the mortality rate among the Black and the Hispanic populations in the US was two times that of the White American. Similarly, in the UK, British Asian minorities, African and Asian ethnic minorities had a much higher incidence of infection. “It is the duty of all governments to give importance to health policy.”
She pointed out that an outbreak of pandemic was predicted several years ago. “On the list of WHO, there was a disease called pathogen X, or disease X, which means that an unknown disease can occur anytime with a pathogen. The pathogen is most likely to be a virus, most likely to be a zoonotic virus. It is related to the respiratory pathogen. Scientists knew that this would happen one day, it was a question of when and not if that there would be a pandemic caused by this type of virus,” she said.
Pro-chancellor (Hospital Management) Prof Dr M Shantharam Shetty, pro-vice-chancellor Prof Dr M S Moodithaya were present at the 10th annual virtual convocation. Vice-chancellor Prof Dr Satheesh Kumar Bhandary delivered the welcome address. Registrar Prof Dr Alka Kulkarni, controller of examinations Prof Dr Prasad Shetty, members of the Board of Management and Academic Council, University officials were also present at the occasion.