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People are suffering from “pandemic fatigue”. It’s been a long two years and most of us have had to endure severe and often unexpected setbacks in our daily lives. Millions of people have died, their livelihoods have been lost and their economies have suffered. It is therefore understandable that many hold on to the hope that the COVID-19 pandemic will come to an end. In some countries, easing or eliminating restrictions has given them hope.
This feeling has somehow been fueled by the Omicron variant, which has been proven to be so cause a less serious illnessat least in adults, with examine Imperial College London reported that 40-45 per cent of those infected with it were 40-45 per cent less likely to be hospitalized than those infected with the Delta variant.
But the advent of the Omicron variant, with its greater transmissibility and ability to prevent at least some of the protection provided by vaccines and previous infections, should remind us of how volatile the trajectory of this pandemic can be.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, issued a stern warning this month: “It is dangerous to think that Omicron will be the last variant and that we are in the final game.”
Although it may be lighter than the Omicron Delta, although it is not light, the cases continue to rise, especially in Europe. This suggests that there is no hope that COVID-19 could soon become endemic.
In its most scientific terms, a disease is considered endemic when the number of cases becomes stable or static, not when the disease is less lethal. According to this definition, COVID-19 is not yet endemic because the cases are still growing. On the other hand, malaria-like diseases that can kill 600,000 people a year and dengue fever that kills 25,000 people a year are endemic in some parts of the world.
So when people, like UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid, talk to COVID about “learning to live”, the question to ask is what would be considered an acceptable number of COVID-19 deaths for the world to move forward. is it normal It is important, of course, that this approach would place the clinically vulnerable and the elderly at a major disadvantage, with a much higher chance of killing the virus.
Some may argue that flu, which we all agree on, kills 650,000 people every year worldwide, so we can probably live with COVID-19. But the flu is not an endemic disease; rather we see the waves in the winter months. And, although the flu virus and SARS-CoV-2 virus are often compared, I can’t believe they have to. They cause two very different diseases. COVID-19 is not only a potentially deadly multi-system inflammatory virus, it can also cause long-term health problems of people of all ages. The flu, on the other hand, usually only affects the respiratory system. That means millions of people worldwide Can live with long COVID which in itself will have dire consequences for their livelihoods and the wider economy. In addition, the number of deaths from COVID-19 to date has been significantly higher than from influenza deaths (although this includes deaths before vaccines became widely available in rich countries and when we were studying the virus).
New variants that may emerge in the future may lead to an even milder disease than Omicron. But there is no evidence that this is true. It would be true if the virus had something to gain by causing a milder disease and keeping its host alive. A large part of the SARS-Cov-2 transmission it occurs in the days before a person develops symptoms and in the first days after symptoms appear. It is usually the host’s own immune response that causes a large part of the disease we have seen in those hospitalized with the virus. This is because the virus can cause excessive stimulation of certain immune cells, which then become difficult to “extinguish” as they begin to attack both healthy and infected cells. When the host becomes seriously ill, the virus spreads to another person. This means that there is no evolutionary pressure to make the virus lighter; We were just lucky with Omicron.
So even though this may be inappropriate for many people, we are not yet in a position to start living with this virus. We must continue to take methods to suppress its spread until we are. This means putting in place measures to protect the most vulnerable, reducing their chances of catching the virus.
Since COVID’s mode of transmission is airborne, schools and other buildings should be equipped with air filters, and we should look for innovative ways to improve airflow in areas where people can gather for a long time. We must also accept that wearing masks can become part of our daily lives, as happened in some parts of Asia after MERS, the first time a type of coronavirus was identified in 2012. But the mask should be the right kind, with the N95. or having the most effective FFP2 masks.
In addition, vaccines are essential, and access to the arms of people around the world continues to be essential. Variations are likely where people are left without vaccines. People who are vaccinated are more likely to get rid of the virus faster than people who are not vaccinated. This means that the virus has less time to reproduce and is less likely to mutate in those who are fully vaccinated. Promoting the global equity of vaccines is in everyone’s interest. We need to vaccinate at least 70-80 percent of the world’s population to achieve global protection and significantly reduce the risk of disease. It may seem ambitious, but it has been done with the polio vaccine, a disease that has been eradicated around the world. In addition, second-generation vaccines are being developed developed it will be the key to tackling emerging varieties more effectively and protecting us in the future.
Vaccines are not the only ones that need to be shared worldwide. Antiviral treatments such as molnupiravir and paxlovid should also be available, which have been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization in the high-risk category of COVID-19. These drugs help stop viral replication, which in turn can reduce the length of time you are sick with COVID-19. Shorter disease means less time for mutations and variants to emerge. That’s something we would all benefit from.
Continuing research on long-term COVID and better understanding the different ways this virus can affect our body can also lead to a time when we might think we could live with this virus.
I hope that the time will come when we will be better protected from the consequences of COVID-19 and prepared to deal with the emerging variants, but unfortunately, the time is not right now. We are in a much better situation than we were two years ago and that is largely a matter of science, but we still cannot claim that we are nearing the end of this pandemic.
Meningitis B: Signs and Symptoms to Look for
The latest data and analysis from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) show that the end of 2021 was in mid-2021. increase the number of cases of meningococcal disease in adolescents and young adults, mainly caused by group B meningococcal disease (MenB), most of which were detected in university students.
B meningitis is caused by the bacterium Neisseria meningitidis. Meningitis it can attack the brain and spinal cord and cause inflammation in these areas, as well as a serious infection of the bloodstream called septicemia. Approximately 10-15 percent of people infected with meningococcal disease will die, sometimes as soon as symptoms appear and within 24 hours. For survivors, one in five may experience long-term disabilities, including hearing loss, brain damage, nervous system problems, kidney damage, limb loss, and skin scars.
The signs and symptoms of meningitis and septicemia include:
- Fever with cold hands and feet
- Difficult to fall asleep or wake up
- Confusion and anger
- Severe muscle pain
- Pale skin blemish, blemishes or rash
- Severe headache
- Stiff neck
- I don’t like bright lights
- Convulsions or convulsions
Initial reductions in COVID-19 in the UK fell in September 2021 to the lowest in B meningitis cases. But as the restrictions eased and people became confused again, teenage cases, in particular, began to rise to higher levels. before the pandemic.
In the UK, teenagers are offered the ACWY meningococcal vaccine in an effort to protect themselves from various defects that can cause meningitis, and the MenB vaccine is offered to children. It is not clear exactly what is causing the rise in the cases of these young people. One theory proposed by the authors of the report is that fewer people were exposed to bacteria due to reduced mixing during the pandemic. This meant that people became less immune, so when the university campuses opened there was an “immunity debt” which put them at risk of contracting the disease.
The best thing that students and young people can do to protect themselves from this serious disease is to get an ACWY vaccine and be alert to the symptoms of B meningitis so that they can seek medical help before it is too late.
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