Monkeypox, Polio, Tuberculosis, and Hepatitis- Why Are We Experiencing Emergence of Multiple Infectious Diseases Simultaneously?
While we are still reeling from mishandling of COVID-19 pandemic, the last few months have been filled with re-emergence of infectious diseases that were thought to be eradicated in the US and/or under control in the rest of the world. Polio has re-emerged in several parts of the US as well as around the world.
Unexplained hepatitis has afflicted many more children in the span of last 2 months globally than the last 2 years of COVID-19 pandemic; twelve children have received liver transplant in the UK. As of May 2022, more than 600 cases and at least 14 deaths have been reported globally. None of these children were infected with hepatitis A, the virus known to cause jaundice and/or hepatitis. “Experts” think that the otherwise harmless adenovirus and adeno-associated viruses (AAV) have become pathogenic, especially in young children whose immune system did not get a chance to develop in the last 2 years due to measures such masking, isolating, and essentially living in a bubble. But only about 20% of the unexplained hepatitis cases have adenovirus or AAV infections and about 26% had SARS-CoV-2 infection resulting in COVID-19 illness. While COVID-19 vaccines have been ruled out as the cause of this unexplained hepatitis, the…