India must invest in developing vaccines for diseases before crisis strikes
Financial Express October 08, 2019 By Virander Singh Chauhan By investing in vaccine development, India can create lasting health and economic benefits for its citizens. In fact, vaccines are one of the most cost-effective public health interventions. The last two months have seen a constant and disturbing flow of news from the Democratic Republic of the Congo about the resurgence of Ebola. The current outbreak, which has now been declared a public health emergency of international concern, has already claimed nearly 2,500 lives. The situation has captured worldwide attention, with public health experts, scientists and health workers racing to contain the disease. A serious and highly contagious virus, Ebola is fatal for approximately half of the people it infects. While experts worry that the worst is yet to come, the current outbreak still pales in comparison to the 2014-16 epidemic, which spread to 10 countries—including four outside of Africa—and resulted in over 28,0...