Uttam Nath
Assistant Professor & HOD,
Department of Botany, St John College, Dimapur
A pandemic is an epidemic of disease prevalent over a whole country or the world affecting a substantial number of people. On the contrary, any widespread endemic disease with a lesser and stable number of infected people such as seasonal influenza is not counted under the umbrella of pandemic. From time immemorial, the flourishing civilization of human has been hindered by different natural calamities including pandemics. If we go through the chronology of last 500 years, one thing prominently stands about the pandemic is that the globe had to encounter multiple dreadful pandemics in this tenure. For instances we can consider American Plagues (16th century), Great Plague of London (17th century), Russian Plague (18th century), American Polio pandemic(20th century), Spanish flue (20th century), COVID-19 (2020) etc. At the same time we cannot forget Swine flu, AIDS, Tuberculosis, Small pox and many other pandemics. The human civilization had to fight some fierce battle with either a virus or bacteria once or twice in almost every century. To wage a war against pandemic has become obvious for human settled in whatever ecosystems.
The outbreak of COVID-19 has created an overwhelming and unprecedented awareness among the people globally though some exceptions exist. As of now more than 2.5 lakhs of people died all around the world in this pandemic. Both the developed and developing countries are being swept away by the vortex of COVID-19 after its first detection in China in the November of 2019. The doctors, scientists and governments are working in tandem to dispel the virus from the planet with different health related instructions and rules and regulations.
Amidst this, a new research of Havard University reveals that the polluting air conditions in the atmosphere work as a cradle field for the corona virus and even a small increase in air pollution can make the corona virus more deadly. The report looked at air pollution and COVID-19 deaths in different counties in USA and concluded that just a single microgram per cubic meter increase in the common air pollutant PM 2.5 can increase the death rate of COVID-19 by 15%. According to an article communicated to a journal named “Science of The Total Environment” by Yaron Ogen hints that Covid-19 can be proliferated by a long time exposure to air pollution, especially nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a toxic component. NO2 forms in the atmosphere mostly as a result of anthropogenic activities such as fossil fuel combustion in vehicles and power plants. It is a well established fact that NO2 contributes to hypertension, heart and cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, poor lung function in adults or lung injury, diabetes and so on. Based on currently available information and clinical expertise, the people who have all those above mentioned medical conditions are at higher risk of COVID-19 disasters. So, the physiognomy of most recent COVID-19 substantiates its link with air pollution. Air pollution may be a key contributor to COVID-19 death. Another recent study shows that almost 80% of deaths across Italy, Spain, France and Germany were in its most polluted regions. In Indian context also we find the most polluted cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Kanpur etc are having pretty much substantial number of COVID-19 cases. Furthermore, many researches are in process to unearth the multi-pronged intrinsic factors of the environment related to COVID-19 and it will spring into light soon. But consensually it can be concluded that the hygienity of the environment can play an immensely staunch role in thwarting COVID--19 or any such transmissible diseases.
Like many other pandemics of previous centuries COVID-19 will also disappear once the medicine is found by the researchers. So far in the fight against this grisly virus we have lost lives and wealth, the global economy has been obliterated by this and we can foresee a miserable future. But at the same time this pandemic has opened up a new vista of introspection and retrospection. We should realize that the planet does not belong to human alone rather human is a petty component of this planet. So, amidst the discussion upon the link of air pollution with COVID-19, if we curtail down the anthropogenic causes of pollution to a sustainable standard in forthcoming years a resurrection of the green imbued world could be seen which could avoid the outbreak of such dreadful diseases. The health of the planet is deteriorating with the uninterrupted exploitation of the natural resources and spewing of pollutants into the environment just for the benefit of rapacious human. Water, air, soil and all the basic resources required for sustaining a life have been extensively altered. In this context, for instances, if we consider only air pollution since 2000, it clearly establishes that the emissions have been rising by an average of 3.4 percent every year, compared to one percent in the 1990s. Therefore, each and every citizen of the world must have to enlighten themselves with the knowledge and keen desire of sustainable development and abatement of any kind of pollution. Or else the arrogance of possessing most modern and advanced scientific technologies cannot protect us from destruction.
(The article is constructed on the basis of the link of air pollution with COVID-19; it doesn’t incline to say about other factors/ agents which are established to have link with COVID-19).
The writer can be contacted at: ttmnth424@gmail.com
