Corona virus may become like AIDS .. Did the world raise the white flag?

Dr. Osama Abu Al-Rub

The World Health Organization (WHO) said that the new coronavirus, SARS Cove 2, which causes Covid-19 disease, may become endemic, such as the HIV virus that causes AIDS. Are solutions exhausted and only the white flag raised?

"It is important that we make these words, this virus may just become another virus that is endemic in our societies, and this virus may never disappear," Mike Ryan, Executive Director of WHO's Emergency Program, said in an online press briefing on Wednesday.

He added, "I think it is necessary to be realistic, and I do not imagine that anyone can predict when this disease will disappear. I see that there are no promises in this regard and there are no dates. This disease may settle to become a long-term problem, and it may not be so."

However, he said the world had achieved some control over how it dealt with the disease, but it would take "tremendous efforts" even if a vaccine was reached, a possibility he described as "a major breakthrough."

Is the virus endemic?
Endemic virus or "endemic disease" (disease) is a disease that has a continuous presence or usual spread and within the expected rates within a geographical area, and this means that the disease continues to exist but within almost constant rates.

The main difference between an endemic disease and a disease that causes a pandemic is predictability. In the case of the endemic virus, scientists have come to know the expected numbers of infections and deaths, that is, if the Corona virus is not contained or eliminated it may end up as another endemic virus to which people are exposed Somewhat regularly.

Examples of endemic viruses

At the World Health Organization press conference on Wednesday, Dr. Ryan used the HIV virus that causes AIDS.

"Although HIV is still still considered an epidemic scientifically, but the world's population has a level of awareness of the virus," Dr. Ryan said, adding that "HIV has not disappeared ... we have found treatments and found ways of prevention and people do not feel as fearful as before. , And now modern medicine provides a long, healthy life for people living with HIV. "

According to the World Health Organization, in 2018 the number of people living with HIV reached 37.9 million, and the expansion of reaching effective means of preventing, diagnosing, treating and caring for HIV has made infection with this virus a chronic health problem that can be controlled, which allows those infected with it. Long and healthy life.

HIV attacks the immune system and weakens the natural human defenses against infections and some types of cancer, and leads to the destruction and disruption of the functions of immune cells, which results in people gradually becoming immune deficient.

The World Health Organization says that there is no cure for HIV infection, however effective antiretroviral drugs can control the virus and help prevent its transmission to other people.

Malaria
Malaria is another example of an endemic disease in certain areas, which is a serious and sometimes fatal disease caused by a parasite that is transmitted by mosquitoes to humans, and there are treatments for it.

Malaria is endemic in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, which is why travelers to these countries may need to obtain medicines to prevent it.

Cold
, Graham Medley, director of the Center for Mathematical Modeling of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told The Virg that there is a possibility that the emerging coronavirus may take the path of other viruses such as the common cold or seasonal influenza, whose infection is more common during specific months of the year.

Medley added that although influenza is not classified as an endemic virus, there is a level of predictability, and that measures taken reduce its spread, such as influenza vaccine, or accelerate recovery in infected individuals such as antivirals, including Tamiflu.

The similarity between the emerging coronaviruses and the AIDS virus
David Wesner, professor of biology at Davidson College in a Forbes article, compared the emerging coronaviruses with their scientific name "SARS Cove 2" and HIV, although he stressed - so that no one panic - that they are completely different.

Wessner said that some recent studies on the effects of HIV and SARS Cove 2 indicate that they have some similarities. According to researchers in Shanghai, Corona virus can affect T-lymphocytes, which are white blood cells, which are the same cells targeted by the virus. AIDS.

Other researchers have also documented that individuals with Covid-19 may have decreased lymphocytes in the blood, and HIV infection can likewise.

On the other hand, the AIDS virus reproduces strongly in white blood cells, where infected cells emit thousands of new viral particles, while the Corona virus, although it infects white blood cells, it does not have the ability to reproduce in these cells, as it appears that these viruses can enter cells But the infection is unsuccessful.

Until now, scientists have not succeeded in developing an HIV vaccine, for several reasons, including: that the AIDS virus changes rapidly through mutations and constantly changes its appearance and remains ahead of any response produced by the body, and that the HIV virus’s fusion when it enters the cell in the genome of the host cell, which It makes it effectively invisible to the host's immune response, plus our bodies do not naturally respond to HIV effectively with an effective immune response.

The good news
The good news is that corona viruses have a much lower rate of mutations than HIV, and preliminary data indicates that this characteristic is valid for the emerging coronavirus SARS Cove 2.

2- The corona virus genome is not integrated with the genome of the affected cells.

3- Previous research on corona viruses indicates that humans have a strong immune response to these viruses.

4- More than 100 potential vaccines for Coronavirus are currently being developed, many of them in clinical trials.

Therefore, the WHO announcement that the Corona virus will become endemic does not mean never raising the white flag or surrendering, but rather that with continuous research, scientists will become more able to predict its course and deal with its victims and provide the necessary support and treatment to them, and perhaps the coming days carry us good news On reaching the required vaccine.