COVID-19 Will Probably Become an Endemic. So what does that mean?

This year Coronavirus outbreak has affected every country in the world, Could COVID-19 become an Endemic ?  It certainly seems to be not going anywhere anytime soon, More likely even after a vaccine is available covid 19 is a valid concern. This outbreak has a global effect on every profession. The rapid rise in  cases vary from country to country but after a certain period of time the number of cases is finally starting to decline.  Eventually will this be just another endemic that will not just pass.

Endemic State of Covid 19 example and definition 

In terms of epidemiology a virus infection which evolved from a pandemic state to an endemic state when infections are constantly maintained to a baseline level within a geographical location or region without any external inputs. An example would be cases of Malaria not found in the United Kingdom while chickenpox is common and is an endemic state in the United Kingdom.

Covid-19 at Epidemic Stage:

One thing that people must accept, is that most World bodies and Health authorities were not in active states when it was starting to break out in China.  At an early stage Instead of trying to contain the virus from the beginning It was being hidden from the world initially. Although it is a big debate that how on-time preventive measures could have stopped Covid-19 from reaching a pandemic stage. It is a well-established fact that it will eventually turn into an endemic by the vaccine is discovered.

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How it all started?

Initially, the first-ever patient ever reported was from a wholesale food market in Wuhan, China and authorities took initial steps for its prevention but the contiguous level of the disease was already high and after the environment samples indicate that the wholesale market was contagious and had played an important role in the widespread of the disease but the damage was already done.

Many countries acted immediately and terminated any air and sea travelings which could possibly spread the virus which for the time being worked but due to lack of awareness about the virus didn’t work much. Similarly, many countries took extreme measures for the safety of its people and even tracked the footstep of a tested positive person, and their relative or anyone that had prior interaction.

From December 2019, it only took a few months for Covid to spreadsheet across different countries and in March 2020, it was declared as a global pandemic.

Pandemic for the first time

In March Officially, the World health organization (WHO) has named Coronavirus named a pandemic for the first time. In an interview, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom said the coronavirus a pandemic due to its global outreach and projection of the total impact due to the virusMeanwhile, WHO from the very beginning alarmed the situation for a critical approach due to its level of spread and severity but due to the variable spread of the disease in every country the measures were different in every region but some turned out to be not sufficient enough to control the spread of the virus leading to its vast spread and killed more than 1 million people with united states with the most number of deaths of more than 200,000.

Blunders that lead to a global outreach?

While WHO was calling for the prevention of the disease, for some people it was not suitable to say it a pandemic. As this would stoke public fear, but the ground realities were different in many countries. Due to the negligence of the authorities, the widespread and deaths increased significantly. Not only human lives were affected, but many of the financial hubs as well as manufacturing markets were also disturbed to a level where it is nearly impossible to retrieve the past anytime soon.

This really raises a few important questions:

1. How ready we were for a global pandemic?
2. How can WHO not learn from previous outbreaks?
3. Is the blame-game going to fix anything?
4. How equipped our technology is to support our lives in such a situation?

Surely, the world wasn’t prepared to handle a global outbreak and most countries didn’t even expect to fall prey to this. Surprisingly, Since this was not the first virus outbreak, the performance of WHO in such a situation is also questionable. Some political leaders also criticize china for hiding the information at the most crucial time, which may or may not be true but it won’t help in the current situation as well. And all of the sudden change during the isolation and Lockdown time period also helped us test out our technological advancements.

WHAT IS PANDEMIC?

COVID-19 surely made the world well acknowledged by the term “pandemic”, The phase where an epidemic or a sudden increase in the number of cases of a certain disease that spread across several countries is known as a pandemic. The level where the predictability of the outspread is not defined and safety measure by every single country was different.

IS IT STILL HERE?

Sooner or later communities will start to get immune to the disease by medication or natural immunity system, there’s no way of isolation that completely stops human interaction. The number of cases might seem to decline but the disease would not disappear straight away, it is impossible for global human interaction and transfers to cease. Outside the communities and areas which are now immune to the disease, there’s still a chance of getting the disease but with a relatively low mortality rate.

Now that the infectious level has started to stabilize and all safety precautions are taken, it might always exist in society as there are many examples of diseases that were considered as a threat to the human race but eventually, medicines and vaccines were developed for their prevention. They might still exist in our society but with low or rare cases, this phase where the disease becomes stabilized and its predictability rate is called an endemic.

Prevention

Social distancing is the first major prevention from the virus as it is transferred from the respiratory system being distant to each other.

Among those who are still affected by the virus would soon develop the immune system that prevents the virus from attacking again but without medication and vaccination, it is unclear whether the natural antibodies would provide long-term prevention?

There is an ongoing process in the development of a vaccine which might take a couple of year before going into production due to a variety of tests before implicating the vaccine but until then natural antibodies and safety precautions are the only way for prevention

Bottom Line:

Covid-19 is a big learning curve for this generation. An epidemic that was not contained within the due time which resulted in a pandemic. But with proper preventive measures and learning from out blunders, this will turn eventually into an endemic. Now, it’s up to the masses how people prepare themselves for endemic, if we act responsibly we might get out of it sooner.