In London and New York, health authorities have invested in the last month polio vaccine, a disease forgotten by the West. Epidemics intensify in 2022 cholera around the world, and since spring monkeypoxthe disease, which hitherto only affected regions of West and Central Africa, has caused more than 20,000 illnesses in the EU alone.

“discounts” in vaccination against serious diseases that have been forgotten, easy movements from one part of the planet to another and climate change that changes the distribution of flora and fauna can gradually change the global map of infectious diseases. In the face of this danger, experts remind us of the lessons we have learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, namely the importance of vaccination, epidemiological surveillance and good hygiene. Such as accent on “k”“if we don’t forget them, we’ll be fine.”

Signs of the need for increased surveillance are already numerous:

• Cholera. At the end of September, the World Health Organization announced that there had been an increase in cholera cases worldwide this year, with 26 countries reporting outbreaks on their soil compared to less than 20 normally reported. According to Philippe Barbosa, head of the WHO cholera team, the average death rate from the disease in Africa has tripled to 3% this year. Among the countries where the cholera epidemic occurred is Syria, where there were more than 33 deaths due to the disease until the end of September.

There have been nine outbreaks of dengue in France this year, and the polio virus has been found in sewage samples in New York and London.

• Polio. Since early September, New York City health authorities have focused their efforts on increasing polio vaccinations due to the detection of the virus in sewage samples from four counties in the New York metropolitan area and the city itself. In July, a severe case of paralysis was reported in an unvaccinated young man. A campaign to vaccinate children against polio was also launched in the UK in August after various polio viruses were found in sewage samples in London, possibly indicating community transmission of the virus. The American continent was declared “polio free” in 1994, and Europe in 2002.

• Dengue. By 2022, France had nine different outbreaks of dengue transmission domestically, with a total of 63 cases. The European Center for Disease Control (ECDC) describes the event as unusual, noting that the country typically reports no more than 10 cases each year. He links micro-epidemics of dengue fever in France this year to environmental factors that are driving the increase in mosquito populations.

• West Nile virus. From the beginning of summer to the present day, 278 laboratory-confirmed cases of West Nile virus infection and 26 deaths due to this disease have been registered in our country. Since 2010, when an epidemic of this disease was first reported in Greece, the virus transmitted by infected mosquitoes (usually common mosquitoes) seems to have settled in our country and the disease is now considered endemic. A similar picture is being recorded in many neighboring countries, and it is significant that this year, cases of infection in Italy have exceeded 550.

• Smallpox monkeys. The virus traditionally circulates in Central and West Africa in its natural hosts (wild rodents) with occasional transmission to monkeys and occasionally to humans. Since the beginning of May 2022, human cases have been reported in non-endemic countries. Until October 5, they were found in the EU countries. 20,141 cases and four deaths in Spain, Belgium and the Czech Republic. In our country, 82 cases have been recorded, of which only 23 are related to traveling abroad.

• Aedes aegypti mosquito. Recently, a small number of individuals of this particular mosquito species have been found in Cyprus, mainly in the Dromolaxia region near Larnaca. It is also known as the yellow fever mosquito and can also transmit dengue fever, Zika virus and chikungunya. According to the latest ECDC Infectious Diseases Report (October 2-8, 2022), the discovery of an established population of this mosquito is of concern. However, the ECDC specifies that in order to detect infectious diseases carried by mosquitoes in an area, the viruses responsible for them must already be circulating in the area. The Aedes aegypti mosquito is noted to be commonly found in tropical and subtropical regions of the world.

Let’s not forget the COVID-19 pandemic

Last week, the EODY National Wastewater Epidemiology Network recorded a 66% increase in SARS-CoV-2 viral load in Attica’s municipal wastewater. The corresponding upward trend of the epidemic based on this indicator is observed in Crete as a whole, which seems to be “keeping pace” with Attica in terms of the development of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the latest EODY Surveillance Report, 51,184 new laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported last week (a 7% decrease compared to the week prior to notification), of which 23% are reinfections. The number of hospitalizations in hospitals of the region due to the disease remains stable: 1102 patients or 157 on average per day. Last Sunday, 62 patients were intubated. On the contrary, there has been an increase in the number of deaths of patients with COVID-19. In particular, last week there were 109 deaths (an increase of 24% compared to the previous week), of which 21 people died at least 29 days after laboratory confirmation of the infection. In total, 33,313 patients with COVID-19 have died in our country since the beginning of the epidemic.

“Surveillance will be our weapon”

“Let’s not allow diseases that have been effectively treated through vaccination in the past to return due to our own negligence.” It highlights talking to “K” Professor of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Hellenic Academy of Sciences, former Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard University, USA, Pagona D. Liou and adds that surveillance, vaccination and hygiene are our main weapons in the fight against potential emerging new and old threats to public health.

Referring to the reasons why epidemics with geographic or even temporal limitations are affecting more and more countries of the world, Ms Layou notes that “because there are no borders, in the sense that we are all free to travel and at the same time they are increasingly migratory phenomena, diseases acquire an international character. In addition, we have much better methods of epidemiological disease surveillance. In short, we find what previously eluded us. In connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, epidemiological surveillance systems have been strengthened.” As he emphasizes, epidemiological surveillance will also be our weapon against the following public health threats.

“We learned lessons”

“There will be other epidemics. How much we are at risk from them depends on how prepared we are to anticipate and deal with them,” Ms Liou notes, adding: “We have learned some lessons from the pandemic. If we don’t forget them, everything will be fine.” The professor pays special attention to the issue of vaccination, emphasizing that in this way we can clearly prevent the recurrence of epidemics that the vaccines themselves have made us forget. “We must not neglect vaccination. And I say this because, unfortunately, during the pandemic, the vaccines from the basic vaccination of children were “lost”. However, the victories we have won with science should not be lost,” emphasizes Ms. Liou.

Changing of the climate

Another important factor in the spread of epidemics is climate change. As the professor notes, “climate change changes the conditions and distribution of flora and fauna, which significantly affects the spread of some infectious diseases.” In a recent publication in the scientific journal The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, William Peng, professor of global environmental health at Duke University (USA), reports that the likelihood of a new pandemic is increasing due to climate change, which seems to influence both the emergence new infectious diseases and the dynamics of their transmission.