Doctors' body calls for engaging medical experts in pandemic reponse

A doctors' body has called for greater and optimal engagement of several professional medical super-specialities in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The role of organised medicine is crucial for development of public health policies and practices. Global Health Security is one of the biggest challenges for a highly diverse and populous nation like India. Antimicrobial Resistance, TB, trauma, non-communicable and communicable diseases, emergencies and pandemics are few of the major challenges which need clinical, public health and social solutions,” said Dr Suneela Garg, president of OMAG president, a federation of 15 professional associations of post-graduate doctors in India.

Garg added that almost seven years ago, India and other countries globally had committed to deliver on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. SDGs recognise that global health security is an essential cog in the wheel to sustainable development where “no one is left behind”.

“Professional medical associations must come together to strengthen the public health services and help deliver on the overarching goal of Universal Health Coverage (UHC)”, she said. ‘One World One Health’ must be the central theme for ensuring global health security, Garg said.

OMAG secretary general and infectious disease expert Dr Ishwar Gilada thanked the Government of India’s National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) for accepting several of the science-backed and evidence-based suggestions made by OMAG, and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for implementing them.

Speaking at the national conference of the Indian Association of Paediatricians, Gilada said that high levels of exposure to the coronavirus, including Omicron, has led to development of natural immunity. Along with this, India’s vaccination coverage is protecting more than three-fourth of our population.

“It is unlikely that a fourth wave of Covid-19 will hit the country like other nations that have already gone through several waves of the virus," he said. Gilada stressed on breaking the chain of transmission of coronavirus and other infections by SMSV (Social distancing, Masks, Sanitation and Vaccination). "Around the world emerging data has demonstrated how vaccination has reduced hospitalisations and deaths. More than 90% of the hospitalisations due to the recent Omicron wave were among the unvaccinated,” he said.

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