Stronger together
A new pandemic agenda for South Asia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21880241 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Shashika Bandara (0000-0002-1698-138X, McGill University), Soumyadeep Bhaumik (0000-0001-9579-4453, George Institute for Global Health), Veena Sriram (0000-0002-7465-5881, University of British Columbia, corresponding author), Senjuti Saha (0000-0001-6087-6766, Child Health Research Foundation), Nukhba Zia (0000-0002-2521-6049, Johns Hopkins University), Zabir Hasan (0000-0001-8730-0054, University of British Columbia), Gathsaurie Neelika Malavige (0000-0001-9201-0449, University of Sri Jayewardenepura), Drona Rasali (0000-0002-1690-1327, University of British Columbia) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue | 8 |
| Pages | e006776 |
| Publication date | 2021-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | BMJ Global Health (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2059-7908 • E-ISSN: 2059-7908 |
| Publisher | BMJ (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006776 |
| PMID | 34353819 |
| OpenAlex | W3190037907 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 10 |
The global increase in COVID-19 cases in 2021 has primarily been due to an uncontrolled surge in South Asia. It is estimated that by 1 September 2021, approximately 1.4 million in South Asians will die due to COVID-19 alone.1 The total number of excess deaths will be much higher—including non-COVID causes, as health systems are on the brink of collapse.2 With 33.4% of South Asians being extremely poor3 and the large-scale loss of livelihood being reported, the region faces a potentially catastrophic future for the ongoing decade.4 However, countries in South Asia continue to remain divisive. This differs from other geographic ‘blocs’ that frequently cooperate on mutual interest issues.5 Tensions in South Asia are shaped by complex domestic, bilateral, intra-regional and international geopolitical factors, despite the region’s obvious geographic, economic and cultural interdependence. A key lesson from the current pandemic is that countries need to share lessons and actively coordinate, complement and supplement each other’s public health responses, especially between neighbours. We present a pragmatic ‘Stronger Together’ agenda (table 1) on critical areas of concern for political, social, medical and public health leaders in South Asia to consider and build on. View this table: Table 1 Key recommendations of a new ‘Stronger Together’ pandemic agenda for South Asia The uncontrolled spread of COVID-19 in many parts of South Asia implies that newer variants will continue to emerge. Some variants will inherently display increased transmissibility, infectivity and vaccine/antigenic escape capability, making it difficult for us to track and intelligently act on them.6 Rapidly scaling up capacity for genomics and rolling out
Agriculture · Business · China · Development economics · Disease · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Geopolitics · Livelihood · Pandemic · Political science · Politics · Public health · Round table · Sociology · South asia · Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology · Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life · Healthcare Systems and Reforms · Medicine
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,75 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2025 (4) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |