The WHO reported a few weeks ago that flu cases have been dropping steadily! The WHO stated that the northern hemisphere flu activity had decreased. Though influenza-like-illnesses levels stayed essentially the same in North America, the actual number of flu cases declines. Additionally, in Central and Western Asia flu levels were low, and East Asia had its flu levels return to the baseline. However, some countries tested specimens for flu and found a few positive for COVID-19 as well. Additionally, in all the testings in the past few weeks, seasonal flu (influenza A viruses) were the most reported.
The CDC reports that from January 1st to the 25th, there were over 70 reported cases of mumps in 16 states. Thus, mumps is clearly a large problem even with the MMR vaccine. Though the MMR vaccination has been used since 1989 and cases have decreased by 99%, there have been recent outbreaks in colleges and universities across the globe. There were serious outbreaks from 2015 to 2017 as a community in Arkansas had approximately 3,000 cases and two serious outbreaks occurred from hundreds of colleges in Iowa and Illinois. Mumps is not only an issue in the US. Recently there has been a huge outbreak of mumps in England as the cases reached the highest they had been in a decade. In January 2020 alone, there have been 546 cases alone as there have been outbreaks in universities. Many of these now college students did not receive the MMR vaccine when they were children as false information was spread about the vaccination.
Just because the COVID-19 pandemic is prominent in everyone’s mind does not mean other diseases have stopped being important. We need to ensure others with different infections and diseases are not overlooked at this time. The mumps could easily be eradicated if people vaccinated their children and did their research about the safety of the vaccine. I hope that many people will change their minds about being anti-vaxxers after this pandemic. We need a vaccine now more than ever to stop COVID-19 as many immunocompromised people are dying and even those who seem to be healthy. When there is no option of a vaccine to fight a disease, it becomes clearly apparent why they are so necessary and important and save thousands of lives. I am happy that seasonal flu is slowly starting to slow down with the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, there will be less flu cases that could be overlooked while everyone is worried about COVID. Hopefully, flu will continue the decrease in cases number over the next months and anti-vaxxers will realize how ignorant their views are and learn to vaccinate their children.
Micro Madness 