The ominous memory of Covid-19 still sends shivers down our spines. The unbearable death toll, the constant fear of infection, the confinement with no visible end, and the personal trauma of that experience come back like a nightmare when you look back at that terrifying start to the decade. No one wants to hear about those years of living with hydroalcoholic gel and antigen tests, as well as the inseparable company of a mask, especially indoors.
Alert theGlobal Health Organization (WHO) A week ago, the World Health Organization launched a journey, if only for a few seconds, into a completely unwelcome reality. The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global health emergency. Mikota Pegota The specter of the Covid-19 era was looming over the minds of a section of the public. However, this warning from the World Health Organization is not a step before a scenario like the one we witnessed with the Corona virus.
“This is a completely different public health problem, with low risks for Europe and that will not affect the population as a whole as happened with Covid-19,” points out Daniel López Acuña, former director of Action Health in Crisis, the World Health Organization, in a conversation with EL TEMPS. “There is a public health problem that must be prevented from spreading and not reaching the point of 2022, in which 70 countries have been affected. One must be alert and respond to the wave of the epidemic. However, we are not talking about a disease that must be limited to the entire population to avoid contagion. It is a very focused pathology.“, It is clear.
In fact, the monkey’s beak experienced a worrying moment of expansion in 2022, when the world was still experiencing the final steps of the health emergency caused by the coronavirus. “At that time, there were about 7,000 cases in Spain. This expansion was controlled and about 250 cases were detected this year. He points out that the concern and alert of the World Health Organization were ignored by the emergence of a new strain, which will be slightly more contagious and slightly more lethal. The main focus of this epidemic wave is Africa after the emergence of a more virulent subtype of this new variant.
“The wave of the epidemic is very strong and has already reached 15 countries in Africa. In Democratic Republic of the Congo, For example, 15,000 cases have been recorded, which will be more, and the number of deaths has been exceeded 500. This new, more contagious and slightly more deadly variant affects children and adolescents more significantly, which is a difference from 2022 outbreak“There are population centres in Africa that are severely affected and it is a priority to stop the progress of this epidemic not only for the people of the African continent, but also for the planet as a whole.” “It is of paramount importance so that it does not spread and spread. He stressed that the health situation in Africa needs to improve.
The new type is not limited to Africa, but has invaded European lands. A few days ago, the first case was discovered in Sweden. “Certainly, there will be New cases in other European countries In the coming weeks. However, as the European Centre for Disease Control and the European Health Safety Committee have pointed out in their risk assessment, the risk in the Old Continent is low, although that does not mean it does not exist. “With a health emergency declared on an international scale, it is natural that there are those who think that the situation is similar to that experienced with Covid-19, but that is not the case,” he says.
“We are talking about a disease that is transmitted through close contact between people and not through the air, and for which there is already a vaccine, which is a fundamental difference compared to the first phase of the coronavirus health crisis,” the epidemiologist adds. “You have to be alert, diagnose early and in time any case, and isolate positive cases for two or three weeks to diagnose them.” Prevent disease transmission“Likewise, close contacts of infected persons should be vaccinated and preventive communication measures should be taken for groups with higher risk sexual behaviours, such as those who have sex between men, enjoy multiple sexual partners and engage in unprotected sex,” he reveals.
“Transmission can happen in either direction, whether you have sex between a man and a man, a woman and a woman, or a woman and a man,” the public health expert points out. “In fact, it’s not a sexually transmitted disease. It’s transmitted through close skin-to-skin contact. It can even be transmitted through towels or sheets contaminated with the serum that leaks from the blisters,” he concludes. “In the 2022 outbreak, more than 80% of infections occurred among men who had sex with other men, and also had multiple sexual partners with them,” he adds. I had unprotected sex».
“It must be emphasized that it is not a disease that only affects men who have sex with men, nor is the infection linked to sexual activity,” he stressed. “In Spain, half of the people identified as being at risk in 2022 have not received their second injection. It is essential to complete these vaccination plans and orient the population. However, there is no need to vaccinate the entire population, nor should there be controls at airports or entry by sea, land and air, as some political authorities have requested. It is a disease with an incubation period of two or three weeks. If someone is infected, it is possible to remain asymptomatic for two or three weeks. We can travel and not be detected..Therefore, making this publication of controls useless.”
The monkey’s beak has symptoms similar to other diseases such as fever, pain throughout the body or general discomfort, but it appreciates other more specific symptoms such as: Adenitis Especially “spots appearing all over the body that turn into blisters.” He points out that they are “a type of liquid bruise that bursts easily and contains a high percentage of the virus, which, when in contact with other people or even with fabrics such as towels, can be a very important source of infection.”
The new variant appears to be more contagious and specific to it. Deaths are 3% of those infected.when in 2022 it covered 1%. In this change, it must also be taken into account that this wave is occurring on a continent that suffers from a lot of poverty, severe environmental degradation, poor health conditions, and a markedly unstable sanitation infrastructure. Therefore, we do not know to what extent these deaths respond to living conditions and to what extent they are the result of the characteristics of the new strain. “The characteristics of the international health emergency are very different – according to the voices of experts – from Covid-19, although it has sometimes revived in the imagination of some people the terrible ghosts of that time.
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