AIIMS Director calls for strategies to tackle pandemic threat
Noted pulmonologist Prof.Randeep Guleria on Saturday said COVID-19 pandemic is not over nor is it the last pandemic. He said "we must prepare to face the future pandemics, particularly time to invest in pandemic prevention and preparedness.
image for illustrative purpose
Visakhapatnam Noted pulmonologist Prof.Randeep Guleria on Saturday said COVID-19 pandemic is not over nor is it the last pandemic. He said "we must prepare to face the future pandemics, particularly time to invest in pandemic prevention and preparedness.
He was speaking as the chief guest at the 41st Foundation Day ceremony of GITAM, deemed to be university here. He was earlier given the foundation day award.
Guleria, Director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi advised that social distancing and masks along with vaccines are still the most effective public health measures to halt the spread of any pandemic. He said that vaccine
hesitancy presents a major obstacle to achieving vaccination coverage that is broad enough to result in herd immunity.
He briefed that vaccines induced immune responses of the host against a pathogen without exposing them to the disease and there are over 60 candidate vaccines in human trials, and over 180 in preclinical trials.
While giving details about the role of AIIMS during COVID-19 pandemic he informed that 100 out of 178 proposals received on COVID related intramural research were funded by AIIMS research committee.
The COVID-19 pandemic is the worst so far in the 21st century and likely to persist till the entire world's population is vaccinated or naturally infected, he said and observed that increasing urbanisation, loss of animal habitats particularly cohabitation with humans are key factors for rise of pandemics in the 21 st century. He mentioned that India has the third highest number of documented COVID-19 deaths in the world and affected livelihood, health, governance system, social fabric and the economy.
GITAM President M.Sribharat presented the GITAM 41st Foundation Award to Guleria in the presence of GITAM Vice-Chancellor
Prof.K.Sivaramakrishna, Prof.M.Gangadhara Rao, Secretary M.Bharadwaj, GITAM Institute of Medical Sciences & Research Pro Vice-Chancellor Jayashankar Variyar and Registrar D. Gunasekharan..
