COVID-19 outbreak underlines need for India to develop its own epidemic intelligence service
Recently both WHO and the US have announced the establishment of centres to monitor the emergence and spread of new diseases. WHO’s new Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Germany, and the US’ Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics under the CDC system will gather data on emerging diseases and forecast their spread to prevent a repeat of the COVID-19 pandemic. These are going to be dedicated facilities in addition to the already robust system of centres, agencies, departments etc. employed in monitoring global health trends.We argue that it is in India’s national interest to develop its own National Epidemic Intelligence System {NEIS}, instead of only depending on global agencies. The NEIS should incorporate existing domestic machinery for disease surveillance with newer technologies and analyse biological events with a strategic lens.READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON FIRSTPOST.