Are we prepared? Lessons from Covid-19 and OMAG position paper on epidemic preparedness.

Raina, Sunil Kumar; Kumar, Raman; Galwankar, Sagar; Garg, Suneela; Bhatt, Ramesh; Dhariwal, Akshay C; Christopher, D J; Parekh, Bakul J et al. · J Family Med Prim Care · 2020

other · Level V

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Abstract

Covid-19 has once again brought into focus our limited preparedness to deal with epidemics. Most nations, across the globe, have responded with a resolve to come stronger out of this crisis and leaderships across the world have shown great commitment to protecting its people from Covid-19. Covid-19 has also taught us a few things for the future. One such learning has been that a strong shift in focus towards non-communicable diseases driving health infrastructure across the globe for the last few decades has come at neglect of communicable diseases. In that sense, therefore, the current pandemic has been a wake-up call. Organised Medicine Academic Guild (OMAG), an umbrella organization of professional associations gathered a group of health experts to develop a policy document on epidemic preparedness to limit the influence of epidemics like Covid-19.