Prevention is better than cure
Our last orbit around the sun has been full of turmoil. SARS-CoV-2 has entered every sphere of our life. Ever since this fatal virus has come into existence, everyone is requesting us to take necessary precautions along with the medical fraternity, because ‘Prevention is better than cure’.
During a break from work, I took the courage of rearranging my cupboard of old books. While doing this daunting task, I came across one of my school tests of English subject. It was a class test and the teacher had asked us to write a paragraph on, ‘How prevention is better than cure’. As a child, I must have crammed about this phrase from one of my books and attempted it well. The class test was trying to convey that, all of us encounter problems in our lives. However, after encountering these problems, we feel that we could have prevented them rather than solving. It was explained with an example of how a student who does not work hard fails in his exams. There was another example of preventing flu and common cold by wearing a pullover or a jacket in winters on the advice of mother. That class test is one of my golden childhood memories, yet it diverted my attention once again towards the dreadful crisis which we are facing today.
We learn and practice this famous proverb from the very first few days of our life. This tendency of preventing problems is innate in all of us. Various reflexes with which we are born, help us in understanding, how we avert the stimuli which we anticipate as being harmful to us. Moro reflex is one example of an involuntary response present at birth. An infant extends the arms, opens the fingers, and many times rapidly joins the arms together as if embracing, in response to fear or when the baby feels that he/she is falling. This reflects about the primordial existence of this adage.
A Dutch philosopher, Desiderius Erasmus in fifteenth century is attributed to have given this phrase. We have been regularly watching, listening and reading about this proactive approach towards health management in fighting against this pandemic for last one year. I don’t think, no one of us has ever been requested to follow the protocol about health to this extent. We really need to understand that, this approach enables us to manage, postpone and is even helpful in preventing some medical conditions.
Thomas Adams once said, ‘Prevention is so much better than healing, because it saves the labor of being sick.” This phrase suits the current scenario because, ‘prevention’ leaves us with certainty that something terrible will not happen. Awareness, obedience, social distancing, wearing masks, maintaining hygiene, sanitization and vaccination are the only preventive measures, through which we have to help ourselves along with our fellow beings from getting infected. It will help the entire human race for a better today and tomorrow.
