The taxpayer’s money is spent on surveillance and routine disease data collection activities in India.
The data regarding disease prevention is so poor in the country and there is lack of information about the Zika virus.
What is the issue?
The municipal authorities in Ahmedabad were unaware of the activities of Zika virus.
This fact itself smacks of either a very poor understanding of disease control principles, or, more likely, an uncoordinated, under-staffed and dysfunctional system.
Public resources were used for establishing the surveillance system, Thousands of samples were collected, screened and then sent for confirmatory testing, all of which costs money.
The purpose of this expenditure was and is to provide timely information to local agencies, so that they can implement mosquito-control measures and stop Zika virus transmissions.
But the data is not being utilised timely, this reflects a waste of surveillance activities and the public resources invested in setting these up.
What are the complaints about Disease surveillance?
It is also the right of the public across the country to know what happened after the cases were identified.
Buy no such information provided to the stake holders.
No special care is taken for pregnant women.
No reports were prepared in order to check if there were additional cases in the area
No epidemiological protocols were available to support laboratory surveillance
Withholding information in order to prevent the population from panicking goes against the cardinal rule of public health.
The taxpayer’s money routinely goes to fund data collection for major diseases in the country.
There are multiple disease control programmes and collecting data is a major activity, sometimes requiring heroic inputs from grassroots-level workers.
Incomplete or poorly collected data is even more damaging as it can give wrong information for health planning activities.
What is the way forward?
Data collection uses taxpayers’ money, and when the data is not used for improving people’s health, this is a waste of public funds.
It is not easy to track a virus in a billion-plus population but not acting after obtaining information is a criminal waste of resources.
Poor health communication and its disastrous consequences amongst the public, having a catastrophic impact on the country’s economy.
A review of disease surveillance systems is required, not only to make this entire system relevant, but also to appreciate the hard work of data collection which is done by lower-level functionaries.
The goal is not to haphazardly collect data, but to use this data for protecting the health of the population.
Government stewardship of this whole system is essential, to listen, regulate and bring about a cohesive health service that can provide care to the people.
India has enough technical resources and expertise.
The critical role of the government in demonstrating leadership and guiding disharmonious participants is essential.
