In the frontline against the next pandemic

IT is said that elephants never forget unlike people who forget too easily.

Already the Covid-19 pandemic is fading from the memory.

Those scary times when we were locked up away from each other and when people died in hospital away from loved ones are easily forgotten, if not by those who lost family and friends to the virus.

The pandemic came as a shock to most of us, but it should not have done, as scientists had been warning for years that a major incident was not just likely but inevitable.

Many more people in the UK died from, or at least with Covid-19, than were the number of UK civilians killed by enemy action in the second world war.

The debate continues as to the source of the outbreak with most experts seeming to believe it passed from animal to human in a Chinese market, whilst others do not rule out a leak from a laboratory.

Whatever the cause, it may seem ridiculous, but in some ways we were lucky.

There were millions of deaths worldwide but for most people Covid-19 was a relatively minor illness. Initially the death toll was high because it claimed the most vulnerable first when there was no natural immunity. But the medics learned quickly about the best treatment techniques, immunity spread in the community and the scientists broke all records to develop vaccines that may not have been perfect but protected against serious illness.

Whilst contagious, it was not so on the scale of some pathogens and whilst very nasty and deadly for some, it was not as lethal as it could have been and was originally feared to be.

But imagine that Covid-19 had been as contagious as measles and as lethal as Ebola. Rather don’t think about this because it is just too horrific.

Dr Jonathan Kennedy in his new book Pathogenesis, a book of the Week on BBC Radio 4, tells a fascinating story of bugs through the ages.

He also warns that this is a golden age for microbes and pathogens.

The ease and speed of travel around the world, increasing incursion into the wild and into animal habitats, together with a growing population and large-scale factory farming provide a perfect storm of possibility for the next pandemic.

This is not to mention the increasing resistance of pathogens to antibiotics.

New medical techniques, vaccines, new medicines including anti-viral treatments are key weapons against any future pandemic.

But in the frontline remains basic cleanliness and hygiene.

This is where we play a part with our effective antiseptics, proven to work against Covid-19, E-COLI, MERS and SARS.

But unlike many antiseptics our product contains no alcohol or chemicals. It is non-hazardous, made by the electrolysis of salt and water.

Our business was born during the Covid-19 pandemic, and we are proud to be a pioneer in the front line against any similar future threat to the world.

Whilst the world can allow itself a sigh of relief, there is no cause for complacency or to let our guard drop.