Clicky
National, Front Page

Fight against Covid-19

Depending on herd immunity may be dangerous


Published : 16 May 2020 10:21 PM | Updated : 05 Sep 2020 12:27 AM

Leading public health experts warned that the novel corona virus situation may reach to a dangerous level, if we mainly depend on increasing herd immunity.

The health system of the country will be thrown to a complete disordered situation, if the path of herd immunity is adopted to combat ongoing battle against the deadly Covid-19.

The herd immunity concept is a gamble with people's lives. This is a strategy that gives the economy priority over public health, where money becomes more important than lives, according to health experts.
Most of the renowned public health experts suggested the government to tighten all types of restrictions before and after the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr.

Everyday more than one thousand cases of Covid-19 are being detected. In every three minutes, one person is being infected by the novel corona virus.

Day by day the numbers of infections are being increased dangerously. The death toll is also going high as most of the patients are dying without getting proper treatment in the hospital.

The authorities relaxed the lockdown restrictions recently allowing people to come out of their houses. Now health experts are raising the question whether the authorities are unofficially heading for the idea of achieving herd immunity to fight the coronavirus or not.
Despite the alarming situation, government has recently allowed opening of shops, markets and shopping malls in a limited scale. As a result, country is witnessing traffic jam on major streets.

Farida Yasmin, general secretary of the National Press Club, on Saturday described that she saw traffic jam while she was on her way to office in the city.

Experts said, "In the herd immunity path of combating the disease, around 67 percent of total population must be infected by the specific disease. According to the figure, ten crore people of Bangladesh to be infected by the Covid-19. Among them, fifty lakh people will face critical health condition."

But the health sector hardly has capacity to provide treatment even for one percent of the critical Covid-19 patients, sources in the health sectors said.

Dr M Mushtuq Husain, leading Public health expert and Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) advisor also agreed that herd immunity method for Covid-19 is not possible in any country. He also said that there is no evidence that herd immunity is effective to combat the deadly virus appropriately in a country.

Considering the present scenario of country's health sector, Dr M Mushtuq Husain, said, “ We must give up thinking of herd immunity.”
He suggested to strictly follow the health rules to contain the increasing trends of Covid-19 cases in the country.
Dr Zakir Hossain, a leading pathologist said, “ In many diseases, the herd immunity last for several years. But in the case of Covid-19, the herd immunity ends in less than one year.”

Thus there is a serious risk of being infected again, he added.
Dr Jahidur Rahman, assistant professor of the virology department at the Shaheed Suhrawardy Hospital, said that herd immunity cannot be a strategy. He warned that adopting it may bring tragic consequences.

Several other health experts also clearly said that the idea of achieving herd immunity in Bangladesh can not be fruitful. They termed the idea as a dangerous misguided conception.

They urged the government to implement a tougher lockdown for a while to halt the spread of coronavirus.
In an article, David Dowdy and Gypsyamber D'Souza, from the Department of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, write: "Herd immunity is a dangerous misconception."

If anybody hopes to use the controversial medical concept to fight Covid-19, they should also know of its dire consequences, local and international experts warned everyone in this regard.

The UK had adopted to go for herd immunity initially and realised its mistake soon enough.
Around 65 per cent of the population should be immune if the country wants to control the pandemic by the sole means of immunity.
The WHO also condemned the "dangerous" concept of herd immunity without reservations.

It said "no-one is safe until everyone is safe" and it is "dangerous" to think that countries can "magically reach herd immunity".
Health experts in Bangladesh, also agree with the observations of the WHO.