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Year-Ender 2022: It was much more than COVID-19 and its impact this year

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The year 2022 is a grim reminder that COVID-19 isn’t the only viral threat. Although when the year began, SARS-CoV-2 had us hooked with fear as the Omicron variant of the COVID-19-causing virus engulfed the world within months, causing cases to skyrocket.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and other health bodies around the globe, a major responsible cause of over 630 million COVID-19 cases was the Omicron variant of the virus. However, this year we saw that COVID-19 wasn’t the only cause of worry.

Financial Express.com brings to you the viruses and their outbreaks that made headlines in 2022:

Mpox (Formerly Known As Monkeypox)

In 2022, one of the other viruses that made headlines was mpox formerly known as monkeypox. After the cases began to rise across the globe, Bavarian Nordic, the only producer of a smallpox vaccine that can also be used to protect against mpox, received millions of dollars of orders from world governments.

The mpox virus which is related to the smallpox virus had never before spread this widely among people outside of Central and West Africa. In May this year, mpox spread like a wildfire across the globe. According to CDC, there have been more than 81,100 cases across 110 countries and over 50 deaths.

The WHO found that although anyone can be infected, outside of West and Central Africa the current outbreak is primarily affecting men who have sex with men

Re-emergence of Polio

This year, Polio again reemerged as a public health threat. Earlier this year, British health authorities found evidence of the local spread of the disease. Meanwhile, in New York and Jerusalem sewage monitoring revealed evidence of polio circulation in wastewater.

According to reports, in areas of low vaccine coverage, the weakened poliovirus contained in the oral polio vaccine can begin to circulate.

Authorities in the UK and Israel have since been working to boost polio vaccination rates in children. The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically decreased global numbers of childhood vaccinations against many different diseases, WHO revealed.

Ebola in Uganda

This year, two Ebola virus outbreaks were reported in Congo. However, in September the situation became worrisome. According to experts, the current Ebola vaccines and treatments don’t offer protection against the strain causing that country’s outbreak. However, clinical trials for three vaccine candidates were set to begin in late 2022.

Reportedly, the outbreak appears to be on the decline after peaking in mid-October. As of December 5, there were no active cases in Uganda. In total, the outbreak has had 142 confirmed cases and 56 confirmed deaths, including at least seven healthcare workers.

Unexplained Hepatitis Among Children

The year 2022 also witnessed a surge in unexplained hepatitis cases among children across the world. According to WHO, between October 2021 and July 8, 2022, more than 1,000 children globally developed severe hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver.

It is noteworthy that experts still aren’t sure about the cause of the outbreak. Many cases of the hepatitis outbreak were linked to an adenovirus, which typically causes colds.

Several experts were also linking the history of previous COVID-19 infections and whether it has an impact on the children’s liver.

Another hypothesis is that kids who were genetically more susceptible to liver disorder were prone to get infected in this outbreak.



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