During 2022, the third year of the covid-19 pandemic, the virus changed how we responded to other infectious outbreaks.
The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus continues to cause hospitalisations, deaths and increased pressure on medical services, albeit generally to a much lesser extent than before vaccines against it were rolled out. Nevertheless, covid-19 wasn鈥檛 the only infectious outbreak that the world recently contended with.
Monkeypox, now called mpox, was identified in non-endemic countries in May and was classified as a global health emergency for the first time by the World Health Organization (WHO) two months later. Worldwide, daily cases peaked at 1075 reported infections on 12 August, before quickly declining, with just 37 new incidences being reported globally on 17 December.
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The covid-19 pandemic has led to more robust relationships between governments and research groups, says at Imperial College London.
Amid mpox, this helped us to identify at-risk people, such as men who have sex with men, early in the outbreak, he says. Communicating this to officials who oversee vaccination campaigns meant that these people could be targeted for immunisation, he says.
As well as mpox, the Sudan variant of Ebola, which has no approved vaccines, caused an outbreak in Uganda in 2022.
In an attempt to curb this, , the two worst-affected districts. This was the first time Uganda, where the virus is endemic, had introduced a lockdown to control Ebola, with the restrictions being extended twice.
Along with many other parts of the world, it had also instigated lockdowns to curb covid-19. According to at medical charity M茅decins Sans Fronti猫res, the world鈥檚 various covid-19 lockdowns probably inspired the Ugandan government to initiate a lockdown for Ebola, which hadn鈥檛 caused an outbreak in the country since before covid-19 emerged.
Subsequently, and, if this continues, the outbreak will be declared over on 10 January, .
According to Roberts, this success may not be entirely due to the lockdown.
Ebola spreads via bodily fluids, making it far less transmissible than viruses like SARS-CoV-2, she says. The coronavirus mainly spreads through air, giving it the potential to infect multiple people at once, which makes lockdowns more effective.
鈥淕iven that Ebola transmission tends to occur in the household or in health facilities, a lockdown on movements outside the household will not stop transmission,鈥� says Roberts.
The spread of Ebola can be stemmed by identifying sick people early and ensuring they are cared for in a way that reduces the risk of the infection spreading. Amid Uganda鈥檚 latest outbreak, local teams tracked the contacts of infected people and ensured that those with Ebola had access to medication and intravenous fluids, which probably did more to stem the outbreak than the lockdown, says Roberts.
Off the back of the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, Roberts worries that charities and governments may not prioritise conditions that don鈥檛 typically affect higher-income countries, such as tuberculosis, . 鈥淭uberculosis is a huge killer but it鈥檚 a pandemic of poverty,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t can be prevented by maintaining good hygiene and sanitation infrastructure and ensuring a basic standard of living conditions.鈥�
Since covid-19 emerged, our preparations for other pandemics seem to have focused on new pathogens or even ones that don鈥檛 exist but could emerge, just as SARS-CoV-2 did, and then have the potential to impact high-income countries, says Roberts. This approach neglects life-threatening infections that are already circulating in lower-income countries, such as tuberculosis and cholera, she says.
鈥淭he covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the profound impact that infectious diseases can have across the world and it is clear that work to stop and mitigate future pandemics, such as developing diagnostics and vaccines, must be collaborative and global in focus,鈥� says Neil Squires at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
For covid-19 specifically, the UKHSA launched the in 2021, which works to detect and assess new variants and share that information globally. In 2022, , such as Pakistan and Kenya.
For Ferguson, the global response to mpox in 2022 supports the idea that researchers and governments around the world are better at dealing with fast-moving infections, at least in high-income countries, off the back of their experience with covid-19.
鈥淚 think a lot of lessons have been learned for the need for rapid assessment, response and international coordination,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 think we are now better prepared 鈥� we know what to do better and we know the priorities.鈥�
