SPEECH
BY SHRI K.R. NARAYANAN, PRESIDENT OF INDIA, ON THE OCCASION OF INAUGURATION
OF THE 10TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON IMMUNOLOGY
NEW DELHI, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1998
One
of the most audacious adventures of the scientific mind that is taking
place in the world to-day is in the field of biology and bio-technology.
Though it seeks to unravel the mysteries of life and nature, and even
dares to play God, it has not succeeded in the search, may be because
the ultimate mysteries of life are themselves in a state of flux or are
involved in an intricately inter-related evolutionary process. But the
scientific search has yielded magnificent results of great significance
to human welfare in agriculture, industry, medicine and other fields.
It
is against this background of revolution in biology, especially in immunological
studies that this International Congress of Immunology is being held.
That this prestigious Congress is meeting in New Delhi is a matter of
honour for my country. It has enabled the largest number of scientists
from India as well as from the neighbouring countries to attend the Conference
and discuss and exchange ideas with international experts on the subject.
May I extend a warm welcome, on behalf of India, to the distinguished
scientific personalities who have gathered here to deliberate on this
most important subject.
Scientists
in the world are engaged in exciting research on the deciphering of the
immune system and its working. Indeed there has been an explosion in immunological
research that has thrown out waves of discoveries. One of the most important
practical discoveries has been the devising of vaccines that invigorate
human immunity that could protect against deadly infections. According
to UNICEF immunization is the greatest public health success story in
history. Between 1980 and 1990 a massive effort raised the coverage rate
from 5% to 80% of the world's children.
As
everyone knows the introduction of a handful of children's vaccines in
the general immunization programme resulted in a dramatic reduction in
infant mortality. The role of the vaccine against small-pox in eradicating
that dreaded disease from the surface of the earth is well known. Poliomylitis
is nearing eradication due to mass use of a vaccine. So is leprosy being
eliminated by the use of the multi-drug therapy. I am glad to note that
an immunotherapeutic vaccine developed by Dr. Pran Talwar and his colleagues
at the National Institute of Immunology is now approved by the Drug Controller
of India and will be available to the public at an affordable price. This
is a major contribution by Indian science to immunology.
One
of the major international scientific efforts being undertaken to-day
in which scientists in India are involved is to evolve a vaccine against
the dreaded AIDS virus. Also vaccines against non-communicable diseases
like cancer are the subject-matter of serious scientific research. India,
with its population problem, is pursuing the possibilities of developing
a fertility control vaccine -- a pioneering effort in the field of immuno-contraception.
While
anti-biotics and vaccines are some of the greatest blessings of modern
medical science to humanity, their excessive use as well as reckless life-styles
of people are rendering them less and less effective. With over-use of
anti-biotics even for the common cold and ordinary ailments, the immunity
of the human body has been put at stake, and microbes and viruses have
become more and more resistant to such drugs. It is being said that "the
golden age" of these "magic bullets" is over. This may be an exaggeration
for neither anti-biotics nor the new vaccines do reach the poorest sections
of society who need them most.
There
is a wide gap and a long time-lag between scientific and medical discoveries
and their applications. Science, industry and governments must join hands
so that fruits of research can be made available to the common man with
minimal delay at affordable cost.
I referred
earlier to excessive use of drugs like anti-biotics and to the reckless
style of living of people in modern society. Human diseases, and physical
and even mental disorders, are the results as much of infection caused
by microbes as by the living conditions in society. The World Health Organization
in its Report of 1995 has said "Poverty is the deadliest disease" that
"conspires with the most deadly and painful diseases to bring wretchedness
to all those who suffer from it". Long ago Florence Nightingale had expressed
the view that if you huddle together hundreds of people in a room without
windows and fresh air, small-pox was bound to break out. Mahatma Gandhi
with his rich experience and unerring instinct had said: "a meticulous
sense of cleanliness, not only personal but also in regard to one's surroundings
is the alpha and omega of corporate life". He added that "where the rules
of personal, domestic and public sanitation are strictly observed and
due care is taken in the matter of diet and exercise, there should be
no occasion for illness or disease."
Environmental
conditions in the larger sense of the term covering poverty, malnutrition,
insanitation, over-industrialisation, pollution, over-population, social
conditions, life-style, moral deterioration, are responsible for disturbing
the immune systems and producing innumerable diseases. In this context
I cannot but recall my favourite quotation from the observations of Thomas
Mackeowen of the Bermingham Medical School:--
"The
most important medical advance of the nineteenth century was the discovery
that infectious diseases were largely attributable to environmental conditions
and could often be prevented by control of the influences which led to
them. The most important advance in the twentieth century is the recognition
that the same is true of many non-communicable diseases." I believe that
the most important advance of the 21st Century would be the realization
of the inevitable need for the control of environmental conditions plus
the development of a series of vaccines against communicable as well as
some of the deadly non-communicable diseases.
Distinguished
scientists, there is more in heaven and earth that impinge upon the human
condition, human health, and human welfare than is dreamt of in our philosophy
and in your medical sciences. Even in medicine there are other systems
than Allopathy. They are known in the West as alternative medicines and
are becoming popular with the public day by day. Some time ago the American
National Institute of Health set up an office of Alternative Medicines
with a brief to integrate effective alternative treatments into mainstream
medical practice. In India, China and several countries in Asia, Middle
East and Africa, indigenous systems of medicine exist, are practised in
parallel to allopathy, and attempts are going on to integrate them. These
systems are holistic, curative as well as preventive, and they deal with
the subtle relationship between body, mind and environment. It has been
said that the Indian system of medicine, Ayurveda, if rejuvenated, and
subjected to severe scientific research, analyses and tests, could perhaps
give a holistic dimension to modern medicine. Immunologists, who deal
with the whole body and its intricate and inter-related workings, are
best fitted to undertake such a holistic effort. In the meantime we have
to find cure for diseases, and try our best to relieve human pain, distress
and the misery of humankind. Immunology is making a fundamental approach
to this challenging task. While doing so it is good to bear in mind the
wider dimensions of the task and the classic statement of Rudolf Virchov,
the author of "Cellular Pathology", that "medicine is a social science".
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