Emphasising the need for preparedness measures ahead of the next pandemic or global health emergency, experts at The Hindu’s webinar, ‘Ebola: Preparing for the Next Pandemic’, said there was an urgent need for better lab and testing infrastructure, for training and resources for healthcare workers, data to be shared across stakeholders and for trust to be built within communities to combat misinformation.

Parthesarathy Rajendran, executive director, Médecins Sans Frontières South Asia, dwelt on the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring Uganda, explaining how cases shot up, why contact tracing remained a cornerstone of controlling infection spread, the need to work with communities to build education and awareness around infection protocols and prevention measures, and to ensure dignified burials for all patients.

Hamsadvani Kuganantham, consultant, WHO South-East Asia Regional Office; global health research manager, The Global Health Network, University of Oxford, stressed the need for countries, including India, to be part of preparedness protocols, to strengthen disease surveillance across the country, for data to be shared to allow for research to be carried out and the importance of incorporating the One Health Approach into public health measures.

Vijayalakshmi Balakrishnan, senior consultant in infectious diseases at Kauvery Hospitals, Chennai, explained how zoonotic infections were handled, clinically: from diagnosis to management, treatment and patient education.

She highlighted the need for data analytics from the State government that could help clinicians anticipate an outbreak or prepare for a surge in cases of a particular infection. She also stressed the need for patients to not self-medicate with antibiotics, as this was leading to the growing crisis of antimicrobial resistance.

The webinar was part of The Hindu’s Health Webinar Series. It can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/live/hWBBBCs5DqQ?si=orS_jRpixY0FeO9F