For thousands of years, human beings have been facing diverse nightmares in the shape of famines, wars and plagues. Billions of lives are wiped out in efforts to fight these nightmares. But all of this resulted in historical experiences that led to development in science, technology and medicine. One can see the yawning gap between past and present epidemics. In the past, every epidemic proved more fatal than the epidemics in the 21st century. History evidently suffered more fatalities in plagues than in wars and famines. Yuval Noah Hurrari wrote in his bestselling book Homo Deus that epidemics and pandemics caused more deaths than wars. For example, the Spanish Flu in 1918 killed 50 to 100 million people in less than a year. On the other hand, the first World War killed 40 million people from 1914 to 1918. Similarly, the outbreak of AIDs in the 1980s killed 30 million Americans and people suffered debilitating physical and psychological damages.

Thus one can conclude that it is time that we invest in biotechnology advancement and health-related progress so that upcoming unprecedented threats can be overcome. Countries across the globe are advancing towards medical defence. Simultaneously, Pakistan should also step up and invest more in medical advancement. By doing so, Pakistan would export medicine rather importing, and simultaneously, the health crisis in the country could also be eliminated.

IMTIAZ ESSA HALEPOTO,

Jamshoro.