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

• Main Authors: Sunil Kumar Raina, Raman Kumar, Sagar Galwankar, Suneela Garg, Ramesh Bhatt, Akshay C Dhariwal, D J Christopher, Bakul J Parekh, S Vimal Krishnan, Praveen Aggarwal, Ishwar Gilada, Udhay Bodhankar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2020-01-01
• Series: Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care
• Subjects: covid-19; epidemic; lessons; omag; position paper
• Online Access: http://www.jfmpc.com/article.asp?issn=2249-4863;year=2020;volume=9;issue=5;spage=2161;epage=2166;aulast=Raina

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.