The UN has warned that the COVID-19 pandemic remains a global concern, and outbreaks of cholera, Ebola and monkeypox (now rebranded as mpox) have led to the mobilization of fitness and assistance personnel to involve life-threatening diseases. The UN has warned that the goal of ending HIV/AIDS by 2030 is in jeopardy, but a new vaccine has raised hopes that malaria could be defeated.
A global population tired of the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic had to contend earlier this year with a new, highly transmissible variant: Omicron.
Omicron and more
This most recent edition spread across Europe, resulting in a record number of weekly cases, the number of deaths being relatively low compared to previous outbreaks.
And while many countries have begun easing lockdowns and other movement restrictions, the World Health Organization (WHO) has noted that the disease remains a threat: as of August, one million COVID-19-related deaths had been recorded.
At the agency’s World Health Assembly in May, the first to be held in users since a pre-pandemic in 2019, WHO leader Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus suggested countries let their guard down.
“Is COVID-19 over? No, it’s not over. I know that’s not the message you need to hear, and that’s not the message I need to get across,” he told delegates.
One billion COVAX vaccines delivered
Since the beginning of the pandemic, WHO has consistently denounced the asymmetric distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, urging more to be done for those living in emerging countries: the UN-backed COVAX center, a multilateral initiative to provide access to the vaccine for all, reached a vital milestone in January. when the billionth vaccine was registered in Rwanda.
COVAX has saved many lives, but in March, Tedros warned that a third of the world’s population had not yet received a single dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, totaling 83% of all Africans.
This inequity remained a challenge in November, when a WHO report showed that low-income countries are constantly struggling to access the must-have vaccines that richer countries demand.
“It’s not appropriate for me, and it shouldn’t be appropriate for anyone,” Tedros said. “If the world enjoys the benefits of better immunization coverage, why shouldn’t the world’s poor?Are some lives worth more than others?”
AIDS eradication goals lagging behind
In 2021, there were 1. 5 million new HIV infections and 650,000 AIDS-related deaths. UN member states demonstrated their commitment to ending the virus by the end of the decade, with the signing of a political declaration at the General Assembly in 2021, but even this year it was transparent that faster action would be needed if that purpose is to be achieved.
A July report showed a slowdown in the rate at which HIV infections decline, to 3. 6 percent between 2020 and 2021, the smallest annual decline in new HIV infections since 2016. The pandemic has flourished as COVID-19 and global crises deplete HIV resources
On World AIDS Day in November, UN leader António Guterres said the 2030 goal is not on track and noted the persistent discrimination, stigma and exclusion still faced by many others living with HIV.
This year has seen an encouraging shift in drug treatment: in March, the first injection providing lasting HIV coverage was launched in South Africa and Brazil as an alternative to daily medication.
WHO has recommended the use of the drug, cabotegravir, which is only injected six times a year, for others at increased risk of HIV infection. In July, the UN struck a deal with the company that developed the drug, to allow the production of cheap generic formulations in less developed countries, a move that could potentially save many lives.
DRC and Uganda hit by Ebola
In April, fitness staff mobilized to deal with a deadly outbreak of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the sixth outbreak recorded in just 4 years. “With effective vaccines available and the involvement of DRC fitness staff in the Ebola response, we can temporarily change the course of this outbreak for the better,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
An outbreak was also reported in neighbouring Uganda in August, following six suspicious deaths in the central district of Mubende, a gold-mining domain that attracts staff from many parts of Uganda and other countries.
The following month, WHO stepped up its reaction efforts, delivering medical supplies, offering logistics and deploying to help the Ugandan government prevent the spread of the virus.
By mid-November, 141 cases and 55 deaths had been confirmed, and the U. N. fitness firm said it was working intensively with the Ugandan government to push the development of new vaccines.
Cholera returns to Haiti, threatens Middle East
As the security situation in Haiti continued to deteriorate, cholera made an unwanted return to the troubled country in October, linked to a degraded sanitation formula and lawlessness, prompting patients to seek treatment.
The scenario has been exacerbated by the gangs’ blockade of Haiti’s main fuel terminal. This led to a fatal fuel shortage that forced many hospitals and gyms to close and distribute water.
The U. N. children’s agency UNICEF said in November that young people accounted for about 40 percent of Haiti’s cases and appealed for $27. 5 million to save lives from the disease.
Haiti was far from the only country affected by the bacterial disease: An outbreak in the Syrian city of Aleppo in September was blamed on others who drank unsafe water from the Euphrates River and used infected water to irrigate crops, leading to food contamination. An outbreak in Lebanon, the first in 3 decades, spread across the country in November. The WHO said the scenario was fragile, with Lebanon facing a protracted crisis and limited access to clean water and good enough sanitation in the country.
WHO knowledge published in December showed cases of infection in about 30 countries, while in the last five years fewer than 20 countries had reported infections.
“The scenario is unprecedented as not only are we seeing more outbreaks, but those outbreaks are bigger and deadlier than we have noticed in recent years,” said Dr Barboza, leader of WHO’s cholera and diarrhoeal epidemic diseases team.
Barboza said that while clashes and mass displacements continue to be the main points that allow the spread of cholera, the climate crisis plays a direct role in the development of several epidemics occurring simultaneously.
Mpox: a new emergency
For many people, monkeypox was an unknown word in the past that will be reported in 2022, the disease has been linked to diseases in humans since 1970. Monkeypox, renamed mpox by the WHO, occurs mainly in rainforest areas of central and western Africa. However, it emerges in other parts of the world this year.
In May, the WHO worked to allay concerns that the outbreak would resemble the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that most inflamed people recover, without treatment, within weeks.
However, with the number of cases emerging worldwide, the WHO declared mpox a “global physical activity emergency of foreign interest” in July. Tedros noted that because the virus was concentrated in men who have sex with men, especially those who have sex partners, the epidemic can simply be stopped, “with the right methods in the right groups. “
A senior WHO official noted in August that the foreign network turned its attention to mpox, once infections surged in the evolved world.
Deputy Emergencies Director-General Ibrahima Soce said in August that “we have been running mpox in Africa for several years, but no one was interested. “
Last November, the WHO announced it would now refer to Monkeypox as mpox, bringing reports of racist and stigmatizing language around the name of the disease.
As of December, more than 80,000 cases have been reported in 110 countries, with deaths.
Greater in malaria
Hopes of ending malaria increased in August, when UNICEF announced that drugmaker GSK had won a $170 million contract to produce the world’s first malaria vaccine.
Malaria remains one of the leading causes of death for children under five: in 2020, nearly one million children and women died from the disease in Africa alone, or one death every minute.
“This is a major step forward in our collective efforts to save children’s lives and lessen the burden of malaria as a component of broader malaria prevention and programmes,” said Etleva Kadilli, Director of UNICEF’s Supply Division.
Plans are already underway to increase production, adding through generational transfer, UNICEF added, “so that each and every child at risk will one day have the opportunity to be vaccinated against this deadly disease. “