While scrub typhus is curable, it is also dangerous if it festers too long. When undetected, its mortality rate is around 13 percent. Owing to poor awareness, and due to the fact that both of them occur during the same seasons, many people mistake scrub typhus for dengue and end up mistreating it.
Posts tagged as “vaccine”
Vaccination should have been easy, given our large production capacities, successful past mass vaccination, and the advanced logistical infrastructure of our election machinery, which could have been used. Instead, even affluent urban Indians are struggling to access an indigenously produced vaccine.
Unlike the U.S., which was criticised for hoarding vaccines with no clear intention to use them all, India was the poster boy of true global integration – sharing its already limited resources with the ones that needed it. But amidst the pride and triumphalism, the Indian government forgot to plan and prepare.
Developing countries want patent protections to be temporarily removed for COVID-19 vaccines and drugs. But this will destroy the incentives that made these vaccines possible in the first place. Pharma companies and global institutions have shown that there are other ways to make medicines affordable.
As of 9 March 2021, India has supplied about 60 million doses of vaccine globally. On the other hand, China has supplied only about 12-15 million overseas. And deeper analysis of India's supply of vaccines to different countries shows that New Delhi has been using its vaccine diplomacy very strategically.
The anti-vaccine movement across Europe and America has led to sharp increases in vaccine-preventable diseases in recent years. This is particularly alarming, given that the only viable solution to COVID-19 is a potential vaccine. How did American politics turn so radically anti-science?
Even with rapid testing and trials, a vaccine against COVID-19 will only be available by the end of this year or by next year. But the next 12-18 months will be critical for countries. They must prepare themselves for an extensive immunization program.