Most of the diseases of the industrial revolution era were effectively controlled by good public health measures like adequate ventilation, hand hygiene practices, better drinking water supply and better standards of living. Antibiotics once discovered led to good control of diseases because of which people forgot these public health measures.
- However, these very antibiotics gave rise to the menace of antimicrobial resistance. The case of tuberculosis (TB) is self-evident. Before the world could bask in the glory of successfully fighting TB, antibiotic resistance emerged and now the people most affected are the ones who are the poorest and have other morbidities.
- But pharmaceutical companies are still making money as they keep on synthesising newer and newer antibiotics pushing their capitalist interests. Some of these new drugs have serious side effects on the patients’ bodies. This has been adequately evidenced and documented in scientific literature.
- A particular socio-economic impact of this is that healthcare no longer remains a domain of public discourse and community action but becomes an individualistic endeavor.
- On the contrary, vaccines have been a great success story. Take polio and smallpox for example. Both diseases were controlled by effective house-to-house outreach with vaccines that conferred immunity to the susceptible individuals and built herd immunity. It required both scientific endeavor and political will to implement these programs.
- In the current context of COVID-19, chloroquine and hydrochloroquine are being tested for action against the virus SARS-COV-2.
- It may be possible that these drugs are efficient in reducing the infection, but there is no guarantee that the virus will not develop a resistance against them. Resistance will develop more often than not.
- With the failed promises and new problems created by the antimicrobials, we need to rethink our health practices and re-emphasise our public health activities like herd immunity through vaccination programmes, potable water supply, nutrition security, hygiene and other primary healthcare services as a matter of fundamental rights and not as free-market commodities. This is the shortest and fastest way of combating pandemics like COVID-19.