Many social restrictions have been put in place to curb the spread of the Covid-19 Pandemic, as people have been eager to return to their pre-lockdown lifestyles.
A series of Viruses are behaving in strange ways.
The flu is also called the seasonal flu. In terms of deaths and hospitalizations, the U.S. winter flu seasons were the most mild on record. As Covid restrictions were removed in the spring and summer, cases continued to rise.
According to Dr. Scott Roberts, associate medical director for infection prevention at the Yale School of Medicine, the flu season in the US never lasts into June.
The impact of covid has been huge. He said that now that people have come forward, places are opening up, and we are seeing Viruses behave in strange ways.
Flu isn't the end.
We are seeing very atypical behaviors in a number of ways for a number of viruses.
Respiratory syncytial virus, a cold-like virus common during winter months, showed an increase last summer, with cases surging among children in Europe, the US and Japan. In January of this year, an outbreak of adenoviruses 41, usually responsible for gastrointestinal illness, became the cause of a mysterious and severeliver disease among young children.
Washington State has experienced its worst outbreak of Tuberculosis in 20 years.
A recent outbreak of monkeypox in 29 non-endemic countries is baffling health experts with over 1,000 confirmed and suspected cases.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that there are at least two genetically distinct monkeypox infections in the US.
The World Health Organization said last week that the virus may have gone undetected for months or even a couple of years.
A section of skin tissue, harvested from a lesion on the skin of a monkey, that had been infected with monkeypox virus, is seen at 50X magnification on day four of rash development in 1968.The two strains indicate that this has been going on for a long time. Roberts said we are at a troubling time. He noted that the coming weeks will be important in determining the course of the virus.
Health experts have reported that the virus is behaving in new and atypical ways. It seems to be spreading within the community through sex, rather than through travel from places where it is typically found. There are new ways in which symptoms are showing up.
Roberts said that some patients are presenting differently than they have been taught, and that some are developing a rash on their genitals and anus.
Many unknowns make me uneasy. He said that they are seeing atypical behaviors for a number of Viruses.
Covid-caused restrictions and mask-wearing over the past two years have given other infectious diseases little chance to spread in the way they used to.
As public health was focused on the Pandemic, viruses were often missed.
That was the case in Washington's Tuberculosis outbreak according to local health authorities.
During the Covid pandemic, access to primary care, including childhood vaccinations, was unavailable to many children.
Newly social and travel-hungry hosts have become fertile breeding grounds for Viruses that were in retreat.
A lead adviser to the WHO said last month that the recent monkeypox outbreak may have been related to two mass events in Europe.
Two years of reduced exposure have made society more vulnerable. Young children who missed out on opportunities to gain immunity against common viruses through their mother's womb are more likely to be germ amplifiers.
According to health experts who are looking into possible links to Covid restrictions, there has been an increase in the number of children with severe acute hepatitis.
The U.K. Health Security Agency said in April that they were looking into the possibility of increased susceptibility due to reduced exposure during the Covid-19pandemic.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is concerned that a number of children may have missed their childhood vaccinations, potentially raising the risk of other vaccine preventable diseases.
During the Covid pandemic, access to primary care, including childhood vaccinations, was not available to many children.
She said that catch-up vaccinations were needed to prevent increases in these diseases.
In the wake of the Pandemic, there has been increased awareness of public health issues, making it more likely that someone will be diagnosed with an outbreak.
Public health systems set up to identify Covid have helped diagnose other diseases, as well as raising the profile of public health matters.
Professor Eyal Leshem is an infectious disease specialist at Sheba Medical Center.
It’s not that the disease is more prevalent, but that it gets more attention.
He warned of the role of "surveillance bias," whereby individuals and medical professionals are more likely to report cases of diseases as they grow more high-profile. It's possible that some viruses, such as monkeypox, may be growing when they weren't reported in the first place.
Leshem said that the disease gets more attention because it is more common.
He noted that the increased monitoring of infectious disease is good. Awareness and understanding of the changing nature of diseases is better with the increase in the spread of infectious diseases.
Leshem said that the public and media attention will help governments and global organizations direct more resources into the prevention and detection of future Pandemics.
He said that these investments have to occur globally.
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