Is there an end to the back-to-back upcoming of pandemics that are haunting human race?
Monkeypox outbreaks have triggered international consternation in a world that is yet to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic with four cases confirmed in India and 14,500 cases globally. The World Health Organisation declared an outbreak to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), just a step short of ‘pandemic’ classification.
COVID-19 crisis is termed a pandemic on January 30, 2020, when cases reached more than 70,000. Monkeypox was caused by a virus but it was first reported in the U.K. on May 6, 2022, even though a few African countries caught this endemic and it spread to more than 63 countries within two months. It is believed to spread only through close contact. The primary concern of the world is now if monkeypox, like that of COVID-19 would have a dangerous impact on the griefstick human population.
Monkeypox symptoms are similar to smallpox but generally, it is milder and less contagious than smallpox. As in the case of monkeypox, it is more of a concern among vulnerable people such as those with weakened immune systems or the pregnant. WHO has recommended that countries should set up surveillance, public awareness, campaigns towards spreading the disease, and health infrastructure be primed.
Nowadays people are much worried about their lives because of the back-to-back upcoming diseases which have the power to take the lives of people. Even though monkeypox falls under the category of neglected tropical disease, there is no idea that it will move to a phase of the pandemic in the future. However, experts assert that there is no possibility of monkeypox becoming as serious as COVID. However, considering its impact on the elderly and others with pre-existing diseases, experts have started working on a vaccine.
If experts come up with a vaccine or not, the question is how long the world will continue developing vaccines for viruses that appear in front of us under different names. There must be an answer that would address all our concerns about the emerging instances of virus outbreaks, challenging and threatening people’s lives. There were no such concerns for people who lived before.
And there arises a question of how the world has changed, what has influenced those in increasing the number of threats among us?