Early bird gets the worm

Idioms and proverbs that express a gospel truth in a concise manner are usually author-less. The caption for today’s column is traced to a collection of proverbs by John Ray (1627-1705), British Botanist and an accomplished naturalist, apart from being a philosopher and theologian. While many stories have drawn from the famed statement to signify the importance of being punctual and disciplined to achieve success, the proverb has also been cited by the wise on appropriate occasions as a sign of warning and caution against procrastination and laziness. Invoking the ongoing nationwide mission, which is in its fourth year after launch, to impress upon the land’s masses the health benefits of maintaining cleanliness in homes, on streets, across public spaces and also personally connects us to the aforementioned proverb with the hidden but loud message to act with a sense of urgency in the matter of diagnosing illness and seeking the services of medical professionals. People at large have to only keep their eyes and ears open to be enlightened about getting cured of various diseases if detected in their early stages. By now, the land’s people are being assured that the deadly disease cancer too can be cured by emulating the early bird.

Victory of good over evil is both a hope and wish that we often hear during discourses by scholars. Nothing can be more pleasing than to hear the physician telling his patients that all will be well again by complying with the prescription, including medicines and diet, in addition to hygienic life, not to forget giving up harmful habits and over-indulgence marked by the outlook of living to eat rather than eating to live. Giving up lifelong habits that hurt one’s well- being is easier said than done, but one can make up one’s mind to get started early.

Lay people may not be both aware and take much notice of the expanding list of the names of diseases appearing in print of dailies. Shock, more than surprise, strikes them upon learning about one of their family members down with a disease bearing a thoroughly unfamiliar name. Names such as chikungunya, dengue, encephalitis and now viral fever have begun to be heard like never before. After battling for long with malaria, tuberculosis, dysentery, influenza, cholera, typhoid, measles and other common illnesses, the land’s population is braving diabetes and heart-related ailments. Outlay on public health in the nation’s budget not matching the actual cost, it is incumbent on the people to seek knowledge on the causes for diseases and act promptly to reduce the burden of the medical fraternity.

A new digital technology has just been announced by a five-member team in the country to enable pathologists accurately determine the nature of diseases and the bugs causing them. More than 1,00,000 pathology laboratories that are in the country, the inventors have claimed, can benefit from the technology by reducing the cost of diagnosis to one-sixth of the present cost. This should enthuse the target population exposed to illnesses not to postpone seeking medical help.