EDITORIAL |
https://doi.org/10.5005/ejohg-11-1-iv |
The world is moving under the shadow of a pandemic. The pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 and the disease, COVID-19, has shattered our life of all scales. People of all countries have accepted variable levels of compromise on their fundamental right of free movement. Either the people have been living with total lockdown or partial lockdown or with various forms of restrictions. Sometimes, the blockade has been coming with or without short notice. The normal economy is ringing the bell of cautions, the education of all groups of people has been highly hampered, the production has decreased almost in all sectors. However, the major stakeholder of pandemic is the health sector. Not a single country can claim that they can take care of their citizen properly. Although nobody is specifically responsible, a chronic and persistent lack of preparedness about pandemic is the main factor. However, there have been several new developments during this pandemic. New diagnostic system using PCR has been developed in almost all countries, although reservation remains regarding the quality of the procedure. Several drugs developed for other antiviral diseases have been repurposed for COVID-19. Vaccines have been developed for SARS-CoV-2 and the world has entered in an era of nucleic acid-based vaccines. Patients of all specialties have suffered tremendously due to this pandemic. As patients with several chronic diseases are prone to develop complicated COVID-19, they have usually avoided hospitals. Normal hospitalization has been hampered and patients with chronic diseases could not get proper coordinated management. Increased total deaths and death rate have been recorded in 2020 compared to 2019 and 2018. Also, the birth rate has decreased in 2020 compared to 2019 and 2018. Thus, the entire social system and fundamental values have been altered due to the pandemic. In this situation, the role of a scientific journal is bound to change. The journal “Euroasian Journal of Hepato- Gastroenterology” is mainly dedicated to gastrointestinal diseases and hepatic causes. However, due to COVID-19 pandemic, the journal has started to publish articles of interest about COVID-19. Most notable is the fact that patients with chronic liver diseases (CLD) and persistent gastrointestinal problems have some extra sufferings during COVID-19 pandemic. The journal is published from Delhi, India. The capital of India is one of the hardest suffered areas due to COVID-19 in India as well as in the world. However, the entire JAYPEE team did their best to have uninterrupted publication of the journal in 2020 and 2021. The future of pandemic is uncertain, although it seems that the present wave of COVID-19 may be contained to a reasonable level due to improved public health measures and advent of prophylactic vaccines. However, new variants and other complexities may delay rescue from the pandemic. The journal is committed to have a new start from the new issue of 2022 to make it more scientific and more reader-friendly.
Sheikh Mohammad Fazle Akbar
Hasan Özkan
Mamun Al Mahtab
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