Ethics, pandemic and environment; looking at the future of low middle income countries

International Journal for Equity in Health

Faouzia Tanveer¹  Muhammad Ali¹  Ali Talha Khalil²  Zabta Khan Shinwari³ 

[1] Department of Biotechnology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan;Department of Pathology, Lady Reading Hospital (MTI), Peshawar, Pakistan;Pakistan Academy of Sciences, Islamabad, Pakistan;Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan;

关键词: Coronavirus;    Pandemic;    Ethics;    Environment;    LMICs;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12939-020-01296-z

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

COVID-19 which started in Wuhan, China and swiftly expanded geographically worldwide, including to Low to Middle Income Countries (LMICs). This in turn raised numerous ethical concerns in preparedness, knowledge sharing, intellectual property rights, environmental health together with the serious constraints regarding readiness of health care systems in LMICs to respond to this enormous public health crisis. From the restrictions on public freedom and burgeoning socio-economic impacts to the rationing of scarce medical resources, the spread of COVID-19 is an extraordinary ethical dilemma for resource constrained nations with less developed health and research systems. In the current crisis, scientific knowledge and technology has an important role to play in effective response. Emergency preparedness is a shared responsibility of all countries with a moral obligation to support each other. This review discusses the ethical concerns regarding the national capacities and response strategies in LMICs to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the deep link between the environment and the increasing risk of pandemics.

【 授权许可】

CC BY