Despite being told that the first case of COVID-19 was detected in 2019, it is not possible to fully know when this actually happened. There is a possibility that there were individuals that were already infected albeit mildly and could have been treated for the symptoms or their immunity worked to fight the virus.
- From this, it would be advisable to always have medical/health data collected from individuals intentionally and critically and stored in such a way that any abnormality from the normal patterns of diseases can be easily detected. This would avert a wildfire kind of outbreak of any disease and also allow for contact tracing.
- Where there is no proper ICT in place, there could be danger of loopholes allowing for unscrupulous organisations and individuals to carry out unauthorized activities. For example, it has been detected that an individual left with doses of the COVID-19 vaccines and administered them to unsuspecting populace without their being any registration in the Chanjo platform. Whereas investigations are underway, the administration has already been done and no one will ever know what was actually administered – whether the vaccines were stored and transported according to the applicable standards and if they were given as is supposed to or where mixed with other substances including water for increased quantities.
- Commenting on the events of the past one and a half years, Jayesh Saini said it is very critical, as far as it is possible, for a country or a continent or bloc of countries to be self-reliant in some of the very basic supplies and raw materials for manufacture of drugs. This will avoid the scenario where non-manufacturing nations were at the mercy of manufacturing countries who for a period shut other countries out to deal with the issues in their own countries.
- Contract manufacturing should be encouraged especially between international big pharma companies with manufacturers from other nations. This would uplift these countries’ manufacturing capacities while also ensuring that the required dosages and formularies are readily available at affordable prices. Jayesh Saini said that contract manufacturing has ensured there equity to a greater extent as the big pharmaceuticals have worked out ways of ensuring their formularies are produced at the place of need with higher effects and returns at competitive costs of production.
- Health facilities, especially hospitals, should be encouraged to have oxygen connected to all the wards and not just to critical care regions. At the same time, there should be a minimum size of area that a health facility should occupy with extra space that can accommodate emergency set ups.
- Rules and regulations should now be put in place by the relevant international bodies to ensure that a scenario as experienced where the rich countries ignore the poorer countries in times of crisis does not happen again.
- Fortunately, Africa, which was really exposed and disadvantaged in so far as resources were concerned, has so far not experienced what was predicted by some of the rich nations, big pharmaceuticals or those who were offering aid. This should create an opportunity to study more regarding the genetic make-up of Africans, the nature of the virus and the kind of climate that it thrives most at
- Interestingly, many of the past pandemics have been detected to have originated from China and/or its environments. Like the case of Africa, research should be carried out to find why this region is susceptible to such outbreaks. With the world being a global village, it would help much to reduce spread, high infection rates and fatality.
- With the speed at which the virus has mutated, researchers should ensure that they conclude on each of the variants to come up with substantial conclusion that would help develop curatives
- The world is encouraged to be more tolerant of each other and focus on how to make life better for all.
- a health facility on Kenya
