The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the (Covid-19) pandemic may escalate into an endemic like Malaria or HIV and may never truly go away.
On Wednesday, May 13, through an online briefing, WHO emergency expert Mike Ryan spoke out against predictions that the virus could be curbed any time soon. The expert added that even if a vaccine is manufactured, containing the disease would still require massive effort.
A pandemic is a disease that’s spread over multiple countries or continents while an endemic means that a disease belongs to a particular people or country or it exists permanently in a particular region or population.
WHO’s Warning
“It is important to put this on the table: this virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities, and this virus may never go away. I don’t think anyone can predict when this disease will disappear. I think there are no promises in this and there are no dates. This disease may settle into a long problem, or it may not be.
“HIV has not gone away – but we have come to terms with the virus,” Ryan stated.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus emphasised that even with the challenges, there was a possibility to control the spread of the virus even as Lesotho registered its first case as the last African country to report Covid-19 cases.
“The trajectory is in our hands, and it’s everybody’s business, and we should all contribute to stopping this pandemic,” Tedros added.
Speaking with a local news site, Professor Matilu Mwau, a researcher at Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) stated that the disease keeps on mutating and despite WHO making the announcement, the trajectory of the disease was still being studied as it is a new disease.
“Stating that a disease is an endemic means that you will come across it every month. Just like Dengue Fever in Mombasa or Malaria in Kenya. We still need to have more details on Coronavirus. Remember the WHO stated that it was not airborne and later realised it was. They stated that it was not a pandemic and it later became. We have to wait and see whether it would stay long or not,” Mwau stated.
As countries in Europe and Africa (Uganda and Rwanda), move to lift the lockdowns, Tedros warned that there was no guaranteed way of easing restrictions without triggering a new wave of infections.
“Many countries would like to get out of the different measures. But our recommendation is still the alert at any country should be at the highest level possible,” Tedros stated.
“There is some magical thinking going on that lockdowns work perfectly and that unlocking lockdowns will go great. Both are fraught with dangers,” Ryan added.
New Outbreaks
China is among the countries that have witnessed new cases of Coronavirus after lifting lockdowns. A Chinese city near the Russian border and a spate of new cases in Wuhan have prompted fears of a fresh wave of infections in China.
Vaccine
As normalcy resumes, amid the fact that the disease may stay for long, researches are trying their best to manufacture vaccines.
More than 100 potential vaccines are being developed.
