In this article, Dr. Drauzio explains that we will probably experience a new pandemic, and we must prepare better to face it.
There will be a new pandemic, we just don’t know where or how it will come.
It will be essential that we are prepared to face it, without repeating the mistakes we made when the coronavirus Covid-19 reached us.
Brazil is the only one among the most developed countries that does not have an institution specialized in the management of public health emergencies and disease control, as are those in European countries and the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC), in the United States. United States, for example.
See also: Epidemics of the future
As soon as the first cases of an unknown disease appear in our territory, it will be necessary to detect them immediately, isolate the causative agent, sequence its genome and characterize the modes of transmission and the pattern of spread between humans and animals. This knowledge is fundamental for developing vaccines and other combat strategies.
The same goes for known diseases that may re-emerge at a given time. see the Epidemic in dengue that we are living. If we had a structure specialized in emergency response, capable of applying epidemiological models to assess the extent and severity of outbreaks in advance, the SUS would have had time to mobilize more effectively to avoid so much morbidity.
With current climate changes, poverty and the housing conditions of our population, it is impossible to end the proliferation of Aedes and dengue fever, but deaths can be avoided with a simple measure: hydration.
The difficulty is not knowing how to treat, but how to organize the networks formed by the Family Health Strategy program, the Basic Health Units, the Emergency Care Units and the hospitals in a rational way to guarantee unrestricted access to care, in a country of the size from our.
It is a gigantic challenge, which cannot depend on isolated initiatives from city halls. Public health emergencies require reliable data collection, rapid responses, and national and international coordination.
We need a technical body supervised by the Ministry of Health, integrated into the SUS, to advise it with autonomy and functional stability, regardless of the voluntarism of the governments at the time. We cannot repeat recent absurdities, such as relying on the press to check the epidemic numbers since officials were unreliable.
There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Despite the difficulties and neglect, Brazilian science has the best quality scientists, distributed in internationally respected universities and research institutes, such as Butantan, Fiocruz and the Evandro Chagas Institute, among many others.
We also have highly qualified scientists who work in the largest American and European research centers. These are Brazilians willing to return to the country as soon as they are offered decent conditions to continue their research. It is not wise to waste talents that we need.
Climate change, deforestation, the disorderly growth of cities, overpopulation in some areas and economic inequality form the ideal breeding ground for the spread of infectious diseases and other problems.
Threats to the health of the population in today’s world are increasingly complex. There is no more room for improvisation. Public policies must be adopted by the SUS after data analysis and technical assessments based on the best scientific evidence.
Brazil has one of the most comprehensive health systems in the world, the SUS, but it is not easy to offer assistance to 200 million inhabitants spread across a continental area, with large masses of vulnerable populations.
The next public health emergency cannot cause a tragedy similar to that of Covid-19. What is needed is a technical body adapted to our reality, with financial resources, modern management, free from political interference and with administrative agility to hire professionals, develop collaborative studies with universities and research institutes, integrated into the SUS with the aim of providing advice. it and strengthen it.
More than 700 thousand Brazilians lost their lives in the last pandemic. We cannot be caught by surprise again. Let’s not repeat the same mistakes, it’s not possible that we haven’t learned anything.
