Historical Significance of Epidemic and Pandemic Diseases that the World Population has experienced
الأهمية التاريخية للأمراض الوبائية والجائحية التي عانىمنها سكان العالم
Here is a little bit of Historical Significance about Epidemic and Pandemic Diseases that the World Population has experienced
فيما يلي بعض الأهمية التاريخية حول الأمراض الوبائية والجائحية التي مر بها سكان العالم
By Mahmoud A. Suleiman
I have to admit from the outset that this article is a compilation of the internationally existing information about the Epidemic and pandemic diseases which any country is obliged to notify about it to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Moreover, this article comes against the alarming backdrop of the outbreak of the Pandemic COVIT-19 Globally, aka Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This is a pandemic that started in China and then began spreading invading other countries of the world, especially Italy, which unfortunately thousands of people lost their lives. This COVID -19 does not respect barriers of any country, so it is all over the seven continents of the World that include Africa,Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Australia (or Oceania) and possibly Antarctica. Sudan in Africa is obviously by no means an exception.
In Sudan, it is understood according to Sudan Tribune Cyber Journal that Sudan closes ports and airports to stop coronavirus spread.
https://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article69111
Thus, on Monday March 17, 2020 the Sudanese Transitional Government declared a public health state of emergency to address coronavirus and decided to shut its ports and airports. In that the Security and Defense Council headed by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of Sovereign Council, declared the public health state of emergency in the country in an attempt to curb the spread of coronavirus. On the other hand, Mohamed al-Faki, the member of the Sovereign Council and its spokesman told reporters that the meeting decided to form a committee tasked with the measures to fight the respiratory disease.
“The committee, at its first meeting, decided to close all airports, ports, and land crossings. Only are permitted to operate cargo flights carrying technical and humanitarian support and scheduled air cargo flights,” said al-Faki.
For the domestic flights including oil service flights must obtain approval prior operations.
He further he said that Khartoum airport and all other airports including landing airstrips are closed. Only cargo flights scheduled flights and other humanitarian flights are permitted to operate on a case-by-case subject to prior request.
He further called on the Sudanese to cooperate with health and security teams to preserve the health of all the people in the country.
Al-Faki warned Sudanese against false messages and rumours advising that they should handle with great caution any information not issued through the official channels on the status of the disease, the number of coronavirus patients.
The foregoing is a quotation from an article in the Sudan Tribune Journal (ST)
https://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article69111
Coronavirus in the African Continent and what impact could virus have on it? Coronavirus has been slow to take root in Africa but the number of cases is now beginning to grow.In Johannesburg, Andrew Harding has been looking at some of issues that could make controlling the virus on the continent particularly challenging.
Elsewhere, for example in the United Kingdom with respect to Coronavirus, it is reported that Nurse’s despair as panic-buyers clear Supermarket shelves of has urged panic-buyers to think about other people after finding supermarket shelves empty.
Someone, from York, said people should stop and think that NHS staff like her could be looking after them – and need to stay healthy to carry out their task. The critical care nurse, who has been working in West Yorkshire, urged people to stop and leave goods for everyone.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-51966337/coronavirus-nurse-s-despair-as-panic-buyers-clear-shelves
Let us make a bit of digression to the nature of the Coronaviruses and overview of their replication and Pathogenesis.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4369385/
Coronaviruses (CoVs) are the largest group of viruses belonging to the Nidovirales order, which includes Coronaviridae, Arteriviridae, and Roniviridae families. The Coronavirinae comprise one of two subfamilies in the Coronaviridae family, with the other being the Torovirinae. The Coronavirinae are further subdivided into four groups, the alpha, beta, gamma and delta coronaviruses. The viruses were initially sorted into these groups based on serology but are now divided by phylogenetic clustering.
All viruses in the Nidovirales order are enveloped, non-segmented positive-sense RNA viruses. They all contain very large genomes for RNA viruses, with Coronavirinae having the largest identified RNA genomes, containing approximately 30 kilobase (kb) genomes. Other common features within the Nidovirales order include: i) a highly conserved genomic organization, with a large replicase gene preceding structural and accessory genes; ii) expression of many nonstructural genes by ribosomal frameshifting; iii) several unique or unusual enzymatic activities encoded within the large replicase-transcriptase polyprotein; and iv) expression of downstream genes by synthesis of 3′ nested sub-genomic mRNAs. In fact, the Nidovirales order name is derived from these nested 3′ mRNAs as nido is Latin for “nest”. The major differences within the Nidovirus families are in the number, type, and sizes of the structural proteins. These differences cause significant alterations in the structure and morphology of the nucleocapsids and virions.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4369385/
Notifiable Pandemic and epidemic diseases
https://www.who.int/csr/disease/ar/
Throughout history, humanity has been challenged by outbreaks of infectious diseases and other health emergencies that have spread, caused death on unprecedented levels and threatened public health security. With no better solution, people’s response was to remove the sick from the healthy population and wait until the epidemic ran its course. With time, scientific knowledge evolved, containment measures became more sophisticated and some infectious disease outbreaks were gradually brought under control with improved sanitation and the discovery of vaccines. However, microbial organisms are well-equipped to invade new territories, adapt to new ecological niches or hosts, change their virulence or modes of transmission, and develop resistance to drugs. An organism that can replicate itself a million times within a day clearly has an evolutionary advantage, with chance and surprise on its side. Therefore, no matter how experienced or refined containment measures became over the years, there was always the possibility of another outbreak causing an epidemic anytime, anywhere. The reality is that the battle to keep up with microbial evolution and adaptation will never be won. The delicate balance between humans and microbes has been conditioned over generations of contact, exposure to immune systems and human behaviour. Today, it has shifted so that the equilibrium is driven by changes in human demographics and behaviour, economic development and land use, international travel and commerce, changing climate and ecosystems, poverty, conflict, famine and the deliberate release of infectious or chemical agents. This has heightened the risk of disease outbreaks.
Background information about viral and/or other epidemic and pandemic diseases
Multiple surveillance and response systems exist worldwide for the early detection and effective response to contain the spread of disease. Time delays still occur for two main reasons, however. The first is the delay between the first case and the confirmation of the outbreak by the healthcare system, allayed by good surveillance via data collection, evaluation, and organisation. The second is when there is a delay between the detection of the outbreak and widespread recognition and declaration of it as an international concern.[4] The declaration is promulgated by an Emergency Committee (EC) made up of international experts operating under the IHR (2005),[3] which was developed following the SARS outbreak of 2002/2003.[4] Between 2009 and 2016, there were four PHEIC declarations.[5] The fifth was the 2018–20 Kivu Ebola epidemic which was announced on 17 July 2019.[7] The sixth is the 2019–20 novel coronavirus outbreak.[8] Under the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR), States have a legal duty to respond promptly to a The Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
Hamdok said with the cooperation of the government, the people, and the world, we can defeat the Pandemic of the Coronavirus
The details
Posted on: 19th March 2020
Sudanese News Agency (SUNA) reported that the Sudanese Prime Minister Dr. Abdullah Hamdok affirmed the government’s keenness and determination to tackle the Corona pandemic virus, and said: It is with the solidarity and solidarity of the government, the Sudanese people and the whole world that we can defeat this epidemic, which is one of the greatest disasters in contemporary history.
Hamdouk called in a press statement addressed to the Sudanese people this evening, to follow the procedures and instructions issued by the Ministry of Health in all seriousness and rigor, pointing out that these instructions would defeat the disease.
“We have taken measures in the previous period of what may appear to be restrictions on citizens, but these measures to protect them … Synonymous,” he said, certainly saying that we fully appreciate the suffering of citizens in the crossings, and that as far as possible we have taken measures to alleviate this suffering. With some “government and people, we will defeat the disease.”
The Prime Minister called on the citizens to stop the big gatherings in weddings and sorrows, and said that temporarily stopping these customs aims to defeat this catastrophe.
The Prime Minister praised the great efforts made by the benevolent Sudanese people, national capitalism, the private sector, youth of the revolution and all sectors of the Sudanese people to address this epidemic, and said, “This is a unique solidarity and we will continue to cooperate with everyone to defeat this disease that will not exclude a people or a nation, but we will work with The rest of the people of the world to defeat him
The WHO, which is 71 years Old having been established on 7 April 1948, is the incubator of steps that work to prevent epidemics and pandemic diseases.
Logo of the World Health Organization, the authority which declares PHEIC
A Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)
World Health Organization (WHO)
Under the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR), states have a legal duty to respond promptly to a PHEIC
World Health Organization (WHO) Definition of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) is asan extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease and to potentially require a coordinated international response.
PHEIC is defined as an extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease and to potentially require a coordinated international response.
The Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) criteria include a list of diseases that are always notifiable SARS, smallpox, wild type poliomyelitis and any new subtype of human influenza are always a PHEIC and do not require an International Health Regulations (IHR)decision to declare them as such.
Pandemic and epidemic diseases include Anthrax, Bird flu, Dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever, Ebola virus disease, Infection with Hendra virus, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, Liver Inflammation or hepatitis, Influenza, Pandemic (H1N1) – 2009, Lhasa fever, Marburg viral disease, Meningococcal meningitis, Infection with Nipah virus, Plague, Rift Fever, Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) , Smallpox, Tularemia (rabbit fever), Yellow fever, Cholera and Relapsing Fever; among others in a long list.
Without a thread of doubt that these are testing times, not only in Sudan, but globally and humanity is in need for Mercy toward its individuals in all parts of the earth and with doing more support and in addition to strict adherence to the rules of prevention from this pandemic and adherence to the instructions issued by the Ministry of Health and of course issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) to reduce brunt of this infection and with a view to save those already infected from the complications that may lead to the loss of dear lives.
William Crawford Gorgas (1854-1920) who was appointed Chief Sanitary Officer of the Isthmian Canal Commission in 1904 and was armed with recent knowledge about the important role of mosquitoes as vectors of yellow fever and malaria, he implemented mosquito-control measures and effectively eradicated yellow fever from Havana for the first time in 150 years. Despite repeated efforts to remove him because of his “outlandish” expenditures, Gorgas persisted and was able to eradicate yellow fever and control malaria in Panama. He was elected President of the American Medical Association and was named Surgeon General. King George V came to his hospital room in London to award him an honorary knighthood. Gorgas died a few months later on July 3, 1920. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.William Crawford Gorgas has been quoted as saying: “In times of stress and danger such as come about as the result of an epidemic, many tragic and cruel phases of human nature are brought out, as well as many brave and unselfish ones.”
William Crawford Gorgas, Sanitation in Panama
And from here we supplicate and ask God Almighty His Mercy towards humanity in all parts of the earth and with more support and in addition to strict adherence to the rules of prevention from this global Pandemic COVID-19 and commitment to the instructions issued by the Ministry of Health and of course issued by the Health Organization Organisation (WHO) to reduce disease and save the infectedfrom complications that may lead to the loss of cherished lives.
Prevention is better than cure “a well-known phrase, and it is used most frequently in the field of health, and awareness campaigns about the dangers of diseases in general, and infectious ones in particular; and upon meditation we find the way to this phrase is not easy, but went through several stages; usually the beginning is the emergence of the disease in cases Individually, and initially primitive, and then develops along two tracks:
First: Increased symptoms and pain in affected cases. The second: increasing the number of people with the disease.
In many cases, the disease has the characteristic of infection and transmission, and here, great attention is paid to the matter, and efforts are made and money is spent in the field of treating cases with the disease first, and in the field of studying those cases in search of the causes of the disease, and the best appropriate medicines for its treatment, while searching for protective serums from it to prevent infection of New cases, after suffering, the symptoms, stages, causes, and transmission of the disease are known, and media campaigns for health awareness continue, as the treatment of the injured continues, and research continues to develop treatment and prevention.
The famous Arab poet Sharif Al-Radi said the following verses of his Poem:
You can see the disease before you say * thephysician is aware of the disease
For war is a modern origin * and evil a principle of conscience
And the grudges may despised a people * we probablysaw from its results the greatest
HENRY DE BRACTON, the English cleric and jurist who was famous for his writings on law, particularly De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae and his ideas on mens rea, HAS BEEN QUOTED AS SAYING: “AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION IS WORTH A POUND OF CURE).https://www.google.com/search?q=quotes+about+prevention+of+diseases&sxsrf=ALeKk03txjU2h8Rwb_wJaCupDLJfYmQJIA:1584732977514&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=kbCTXfHkqwtZAM%253A%252CqIVDfi2kfN-7gM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kTnn8l1HZfwYx5xar3fpqCkkpcGDg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiU1sCx5qnoAhWHUMAKHecPD5gQ9QEwA3oECAkQHg#imgrc=kbCTXfHkqwtZAM:
Bill Gates– William Henry Gates III is an American business magnate, software developer, investor, and philanthropist and who is best known as the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation has been quoted as saying: “ Treatment without prevention is simply unsustainable”.https://www.google.com/search?q=bill+gates&oq=Bill+Gates&aqs=chrome.0.0j46j0l6.2071j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is an author, columnist and a blogger. His blog is http://thussudan.wordpress.com/