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The COVID- 19 global pandemic requires strong public health systems as
private healthcare systems are unable to deal with global health threats with
adequate collective responses.
COVID- 19, which began in the Wuhan city of China, has spread all over the world in just two months. There have been more than 487,600 confirmed cases and 22000 deaths. Different countries have responded differently to this global outbreak.
Wim De Ceukelaire and colleagues assessed the response of various countries against Coronavirus infection. According to the release of WHO-China joint mission on COVID-19, the health systems in multiple countries lack definitive strategies to tackle this while china has made the most effective disease control strategy. This, in turn, has resulted in a significantly decreased number of cases and also the quality of life of people in China is improving, and they are heading back to their healthy life. Currently, there is no confirmed treatment or vaccine available for this infectious disease, so the control lies only in detecting infected individuals, providing them with proper care, isolating them to limit the spread and providing appropriate health training to the workers. The reports further stated that the control of this disease has only been possible due to the mutual support from the people of China to fight against this global outbreak. Similar results have been observed from a recent study conducted by experts to assess the healthcare systems in Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan. These countries have successfully implemented absolute control and management strategies to deliver healthcare services adequately. This has raised their ability to adapt to this situation of global crisis.
Also, the overall experience from these countries indicates that the patient’s trust, the competence of healthcare professionals, support from society as well as government is of prime importance to fight against this health emergency. These three countries believe in strong public health systems which provide selfless and extensive support to the infected population. On the contrary, few countries have transformed their public-funded health systems to private healthcare systems. This has tremendously impacted their capacity to manage large scale health crisis and also significantly to decrease the public's confidence in healthcare systems. A fine healthcare system requires adequate contact tracing strategies and china has been able to do that effectively. In a country like the US, extensive contract tracing is not possible due to its weak primary healthcare. The failure of privatized healthcare systems can now be expected as COVID-19 is rapidly spreading to regions like Europe and the US. The measures taken by European government are strictly based on people’s individual responsibilities.
Social distancing and people’s individual responsibility is indeed essential, and it has helped china in controlling this global outbreak. Still, it is equally important to understand that these measures are not sufficient to tackle large health crisis. Strong public health systems are what we require to fight against this massive health threat. Privatization of healthcare services may significantly reduce our capacity to handle this global pandemic.
International Journal of Health Services
We Need Strong Public Health Care to Contain the Global Corona Pandemic
Wim De Ceukelaire et al.
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