It’s that time of the year when respiratory diseases keep increasing, especially in the northern hemisphere winter, because of the number of pathogens spreading, including Covid-19, the flu, pneumonia, besides the evolving SARS-Cov-2 that will not stop throwing up sub-lineages and other variants like JN.1, which is a virus of interest now.
No wonder then that the World Health Organisation has put out an advisory just ahead of the year-ending holiday season when people gather, that too mostly indoors. While the global advisory is only to take precautions and wear masks in crowded places, the Union ministry of health has initiated widespread preparedness measures after a case of JN1 was found in Kerala during routine surveillance.
There is no need to panic yet as globally the numbers are higher than they were, say, at the end of 2022, but serious illnesses and deaths are lagging way behind infection figures as compared to nightmarish 2020 when the virus first spread globally and brought the planet to its knees and a standstill in the coronavirus pandemic.
Expert advice, markedly for the most vulnerable groups of the elderly, those down with seasonal respiratory illnesses, pregnant women and so on, is to take precautions and wear masks in crowded places. People are advised to wear masks even if they feel well, since the transmission of the virus occurs a day or two before symptoms appear.
There is no reason to press the panic button yet as the world is a somewhat wiser place since the pandemic broke out in early 2020. All the mistakes we committed then, including what we see in a UK reappraisal of the strict lockdown measures taken and which killed the economy even as infected people were dying in thousands in nearly all the countries, may have handed out lessons.
The sanest advice is just to be sensible about taking precautions and not go to work or school if unwell and to seek medical attention and take antiviral medication, if so advised. It is everyone’s duty not to help the virus or the various pathogens to spread. How people, including those who are least at risk of exposure to Covid, can contribute is in slowing down the transmission of the virus.
The current wave could just be endemic, much like endemic influenza and other common respiratory infections. Even then, it is a time to take precautions because the horrors of the pandemic are best avoided.
