COVID-19: What should we do? In Conversation with Prof. Samir Kumar Saha

In the current global pandemic scenario of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Prof Samir Kumar Saha, Head of the Department of Microbiology at Dhaka Shishu Hospital and Executive Director of Child Health Research Foundation (CHRF) shared his views with the Star Health and shed light on the direction of handling the global pandemic in the context of Bangladesh.

When asked about the virus Prof Saha said that we know very little about this virus. New things are getting unfolded every day. Coronavirus was there in this world for many years. In the past, coronavirus caused only minor sickness like sneezing and coughing etc. But now it is causing severe respiratory infections. The virus has evolved going through different animals like birds, especially bats and some other hosts.

Bangladesh is possibly on the brink of a disaster. Maybe a very big wave is coming at us, and we do not know what is going to happen. The next few weeks will be very critical because the viral infection has moved to the community level. We are not sure how it will behave.

We could not screen a large number of cases in Bangladesh because we did not have the arrangements to do the tests. We could not involve more laboratories in time to perform the tests. If we could have done something about it a little earlier, it would have been much more effective in measuring the situation.

Prof Saha thinks that there should be more detection of cases and immediately they should be isolated. If it is not done the nation might be at risk. It depends on how disciplined we are, and how we are maintaining everything. We need to follow the social distancing, quarantines and all the other instructions that are being placed by the government. If we do not follow that we could face a major problem very difficult to handle.

About the development of a vaccine for COVID-19, Prof Saha says globally there are many pharmaceuticals, research organisations and universities trying to develop a vaccine but the progress is not known. We are not sure whether there will be a vaccine in a short time. Even if there is any development of the vaccine within the next six months, it will probably take at least a year to come to us because the discovery of the vaccine and then producing it in bulk is not very simple. It requires a lot of time and the involvement of many industries to produce millions of doses.

About the psychosocial consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, Prof Saha says, "This global pandemic teaches us that human beings cannot live alone. They should live together and they should help each other - that is the only way they can survive. No matter how strong we are, wherever we live in this world, we cannot get protected. We should realise this and try to be a true human being with compassion for each other."