"Exacerbating the Pandemic? Assessing The Critical Role of Religious Congregations in Indian Subcontinent"

Chapter 07:  Exacerbating the Pandemic? Assessing The Critical Role of Religious Congregations in the Indian Subcontinent. 

Rohan Kumar Gunaratna and Mohd Mizan Aslam (ed), COVID-19 Pandemic: The Threat and Response, Routledge, 2022.  See for details @ https://www.routledge.com/COVID-19-Pandemic-The-Threat-and-Response/Gun…

ANIMESH ROUL
January 2022

Animesh Roul has published a paper on "Taliban Campaign Against Polio Vaccination in Pakistan" in "CTC Sentinel" (West Points (US) Journal)

Pakistan has struggled to cope with the spread of polio, a debilitating viral disease. Human infections are frequently reported despite government and international agencies’ efforts to eliminate the disease.[1] According to a World Health Organization (WHO) estimate, at least 72 polio cases were recorded in Pakistan in 2013, compared to 58 cases in 2012.[2] In 2014, the number of infected children had already reached 115 through August.[3] The most affected provinces of Pakistan are Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

Threat Within: Combating HIV/AIDS in India

In January 2006, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that HIV/AIDS has killed 25 million people since it was first identified twenty-five years ago, in 1981. In India, the first case of HIV was detected in Chennai in 1986. Now, as per UNAIDS estimate, the HIV affected people in India is staggering 5.7 million. NACO (National Aids Control Organisation) has put the figure to be 5.2 million. India is second only to South Africa in terms of the overall number of people living with the disease. Although, the statistics vary with various reports, the threat within persists.

DEETI RAY

Bird Flu: The Next Pandemic?

The world is still recuperating from the onslaught of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) that killed 774 persons and spread to almost every corner of the globe in 2003-04. The World Health Organisation (WHO) warns that we are again closer to experience the next pandemic, Bird Flu (Avian Influenza). David Heymann of WHO recently observed that the ‘world is at great risk of a new pandemic of deadly bird flu, but is ill prepared to handle it’.

Animesh Roul