New Delhi, December 22 (IANS). Many researches and studies were conducted in the health sector. The results increased the concern of health experts about chronic diseases. It is being said continuously that physical problems like high BP, cholesterol, diabetes are related to lifestyle and diet. The trend of deaths due to cancer, heart attack or stroke continued this year also. So some such infectious diseases also flourished which forced WHO to declare health emergency. Apart from the new variants of Covid, bird flu and monkeypox, dengue distracted everyone.
Monkeypox and bird flu troubled not only India but the entire world.
This year, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared monkeypox infection a global pandemic.
MPox cases in Africa approach 70,000. The number of cases of mpox in Africa so far this year has surpassed 69,000, while the death toll has reached more than 1,260, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.
The impact of the Corona epidemic, which started in the year 2019-20 across the world, was seen this year also. Corona cases were reported this year from almost every state of the country. The world learned about many new variants, which were controlled in time.
At the beginning of the year, new variants of Corona also increased people’s concern. Till last year, Covid remained a serious health challenge across the world. Experts warned the world about a new variant of Corona, JN.1.
According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report released in August 2024, between June 24 and July 21 this year, 908 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in India and two patients died of the disease.
WHO told the world that between June 24 and July 21, an average of 17,358 samples were tested for coronavirus-2 every week in 85 countries.
The report said more than 1,86,000 new cases were reported in 96 countries and more than 2,800 people lost their lives in 35 countries.
The WHO report said that since the beginning of the pandemic till July 21, more than 775 million cases have been confirmed worldwide and more than 70 lakh patients have died.
Information regarding Covid victims was received from America and European countries.
Talking about the South-East Asia region, the impact of infection was most visible in Thailand (6,704 new cases and 35 deaths). It was followed by India (908 new cases and two deaths) and Bangladesh (372 new cases and one death).
The report said that JN.1 cases were the highest globally. Cases of this variant were found in 135 countries.
Meanwhile, according to the Covid dashboard of the Union Health Ministry, an increase in Covid cases is being seen in many states of India.
Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Rajasthan and West Bengal saw a positivity rate of more than five percent.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC), there are highly infectious KP.1 and KP.2 strains that have evolved from the JN.1 Omicron variant. These are also responsible for the increase in Covid cases in India.
Many types of research also revealed that many people were affected by this new variant.
By the end of the year, bird flu also knocked in India. News came from Phalodi district of Rajasthan regarding bird flu. The bird Kurjaan was found dead. The bird’s viscera was sent for investigation. The virus was confirmed in the test report on 21 December. The confirmation of the virus raised concerns within the local administration and the forest department, as the virus could pose a threat to other bird species as well.
Apart from these, dengue caused by mosquito bites also troubled people a lot. According to WHO global dengue surveillance data, more than 12 million cases were reported worldwide till August this year. At the same time, 6,991 people also died due to this. Dengue cases were recorded double. Last year only 5.27 million cases were reported.
–IANS
MKS/KR