This year the virus seems to be particularly fierce or people’s immunity is particularly weak, especially parents with young children. They have to report to the clinic every month or two, and they feel weak as never before. Scientists almost unanimously attribute this global malaise to immunity debt after the COVID-19 epidemic. Some studies have also found that the epidemic pattern of the virus has changed and may never be the same again.
In addition to influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, there are more than 200 viruses that cause cold-like symptoms, including enteroviruses, rhinoviruses, parainfluenza viruses and common cold coronaviruses, all close relatives of the new coronavirus. In the past three years, epidemic prevention has suppressed infectious viruses. After the lockdown was lifted, various infections broke out, including the triple epidemic of influenza, respiratory syncytial virus and new coronavirus. In addition, norovirus and common cold also appeared, and many people felt that they only had a cold. It didn’t take long before I fell ill again.
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Experts say it feels like everyone is getting sick this year not because the virus is more ferocious, but because the body has forgotten how to fight it. The immunity activated by viruses that make people sick does not last long. Most people have rarely been exposed to viruses in the past three years. The immunity is against viruses that were prevalent three to four years ago. Therefore, after returning to normal life, the body needs to accumulate again. Viral antibodies.
Antibodies take time to build up, and once the body relearns how to produce antibodies to a specific virus, symptoms may be milder and recovery will be faster if exposed to the virus again.
Virus seasonality broken
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In addition to the fact that people’s immunity still needs time to rebuild, this year’s virus epidemic pattern is indeed different from previous years. For example, the global influenza outbreak was earlier than in Taiwan, and it was delayed until summer, showing a long-term trend. Researchers from the Laboratory of Instrumentation and Particle Physics in Lisbon, Portugal published a study in “PLoS One”, analyzing disease data in the United States and Canada from 2016 to 2023, and found that the epidemic period of viruses that caused winter diseases in the past is no longer limited to the cold season.
Before the epidemic, virus dynamics were mainly affected by atmospheric conditions. During the epidemic, human mobility overwhelmed the influence of meteorological conditions. Before 2020, the seasonal interaction between atmospheric conditions and human mobility was in a delicate balance, manifested by a surge in respiratory bacteria in winter. But the balance was tipped by the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to year-round epidemics and changes in viral dynamics that researchers say “may never be the same again.”
While seasonal viruses such as influenza do have seasonal capabilities, winter is no longer the dominant factor, and infections previously thought to be winter seasonal may occur year-round. This has important implications for respiratory virus surveillance and public health as a whole, potentially leading to Unforeseen surges in viral infections have increased pressure on medical resources. Furthermore, even if the weather is hot, climate change has the potential to alter viral infectivity and alter known viral dynamics.
No matter how the virus epidemic pattern changes, the first priority is to rebuild the immunity. The immunity debt will be repaid as long as the epidemic is closed. The medical community estimates that it may take two to three years to repay the immunity debt after the epidemic is over. Faced with the surge in patients seeking medical treatment, Taiwan’s pediatricians said, “This is a transitional period, and everyone can only endure it for a while.”
(Source of first image:Unsplash)
2023-12-25 12:45:00
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