Many infectious diseases may soon surprise the world
An American scientist: After the nightmare of "Corona", we may wake up to a catastrophic return to "measles"
When the Coronavirus crisis ends, it is possible that the most dangerous diseases will surprise us with a violent comeback.
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Disturbing statistical results revealed that a few months passed from 2021, without public health authorities in the United Kingdom registering any cases of influenza.
The American writer and physicist, Mark Buchanan, says in a report published by the Bloomberg News Agency that experts believe that the reason behind this is that wearing masks, adhering to the rules of social distancing, and the authorities imposing lockdown measures aimed at limiting the spread of the new Corona virus have led A fundamental role in eliminating the influenza virus, as the number of people infected with influenza decreased throughout the world.
This is good news, of course, so why is it also worrying?
If these measures have avoided recording infections with the influenza virus, they may also have kept other infectious diseases under control, among them some of the more serious ones.
Buchanan believes that when the crisis of the Corona virus that causes Covid-19 disease ends, and countries begin to reduce public health measures, among them allowing the resumption of air travel in particular, it is possible that these more dangerous diseases will surprise us by a violent return again. .
The measles virus is one of the biggest sources of concern in particular, in 1980 an outbreak of measles killed about 2.6 million people worldwide, a number slightly more than the number of global deaths that have resulted, so far, the emerging corona virus.
By 2014, the vaccines had reduced the annual number of deaths to 100,000, but the decline in the vaccination coverage during recent years allowed the numbers to increase again, and scientists fear that the irregularity in giving vaccinations against measles during the current period, which is witnessing an outbreak of an epidemic. Corona virus globally, in the possibility that the measles virus will have an opportunity to spread globally, as soon as the world wakes up from the nightmare of "Covid" disease.
Buchanan notes that the measles vaccine consists of two doses, and the vaccination rate must be higher than 95% for each of the two doses, in order to prevent the outbreak of the disease, and unfortunately, coverage of the first dose has stopped at a rate of about 85% more than a decade ago, while The coverage rate for the second dose is only 71%.
This is the reason why, after the number of measles cases decreased steadily, during the period from 2010 to 2016, the number of deaths began to increase in the following years to 89 thousand, 109 thousand, 142 thousand and 207 thousand cases.
It is not known yet the number of cases in 2020, as there is a delay of nine or 10 months before the World Health Organization is able to collect data on measles cases and announce them, however it is assumed that the numbers will improve precisely due to the measures that have been taken to combat The outbreak of the Corona pandemic, but what causes concern is what will happen after the pandemic ends.
About 50 countries had canceled their mass vaccination campaigns against various viruses during the first six months of the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, and routine vaccination operations were also disrupted due to problems such as the lack of public transportation, which caused millions of children not to receive their important vaccinations. The matter is vaccination is the primary measure against viruses, such as the measles virus, which is a virulent virus, and is among the most contagious viruses known in the world.
Buchanan stresses that while the problem is more severe in developing countries, it still affects the United States and other developed countries, and medical experts said, finally, that countries are likely to focus on measles vaccines, even while they are introducing vaccines against "Covid" disease. -19 ».
In 1980 measles killed 2.6 million people, a number that exceeds the number of Corona deaths so far.
The lack of public transportation during the quarantine caused millions of children not to receive their important vaccinations.
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A country has canceled mass vaccination campaigns against various viruses, during the first six months of the outbreak of the pandemic.
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