Every year, thousands of people get affected by some of the other infectious diseases. The pandemic has shown that it can cost a lot of money to handle the infections when it goes out of control. However, compared to the estimated value of lives lost due to the pandemic, measures to prevent the pandemic cost only 5%. The new study has shown that preventing pandemics should be a top priority as it is cost-effective in the long run.
Preventing Pandemics Would Cost Only 5% Of Lives Lost
Research has shown that it is possible to avoid future pandemics by preventing the spillover of infections from animals to humans. According to experts, it would cost around $20 billion if all the required measures are taken to prevent such pandemics in the future. However, if the infectious diseases go out of control, it can cost many times more than what is spent on preventing the pandemic.
Experts say that spending a few billion on research to prevent the next pandemic makes a lot of sense rather than spending trillions on handling the next pandemic once it arrives.
The Covid situation has shown that we need to be prepared to handle such infections in the future. Considering the seriousness of the situation, the governments need to step up research to identify future threats and be prepared to handle them in the future. In this way, many lives can be saved, and it will also be a cost-effective measure. The latest estimates indicate that more than 3 million people are likely to die every year from viral diseases, and experts say that this amounts to a total loss of more than $500 billion to the country.
However, when suitable policies are developed to identify such threats, the overall cost of handling the situation reduces to a large extent. Not only that, identifying the threats early will mean that millions of lives can be saved during a pandemic situation. Researchers say that more funds should be allocated to reducing deforestation as this avoids various threats to humanity in the long run. As forests continue to burn, the cases of malaria and other respiratory diseases increase across the country.
Experts are pressing for a global viral discovery project to help them identify emerging pathogens that can spill over from animals to humans shortly. In this way, methods to test the infection can be developed before the spillover happens to humans. This will also help the scientists prepare suitable vaccines to prevent the pandemic in the early stages.
The emergency of zoonotic diseases has to be prevented by proper monitoring of wildlife trade. In this way, risky practices can be cut down to avoid future infections from animals to humans. Apart from that, the reduction of deforestation is another important aspect to manage the future crisis. With deforestation, the contact between animals and humans increases, and this increases the chances of infections spilling over from animals to humans.
Managing livestock operations in the proper way is also essential to avoid future pandemics, according to experts. There are several diseases that can spill over from animals to humans, and we need to monitor the health of livestock regularly. In this way, the diseases can be detected early to avoid future complications.
The effort needs to be done at a global scale as no country is isolated when it comes to a pandemic situation. We have all seen in the last two years that any infection emerging in some part of the world can reach the other end of the world within a matter of few months.
