The coronavirus, John-Arne Røttingen | Peak health: therefore, the coronary pandemic got out of control

OSLO (Nettavisen): Virus-based pandemics are a growing threat, but it is possible to detect them early and gain control, says John-Arne Røttingen, the doctor and epidemiologist who this week took over as global health ambassador at the Ministry of Health. External relationships.

While the Sars virus was suppressed thanks to international efforts six months after its discovery, the spread of the covid-19 virus spiraled out of control. So far, 1.5 million people have died and 65 million cases have been detected worldwide, according to Worldometers. In the SARS epidemic, 8,096 infections and 774 deaths were reported.

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– it was too long

“We were hoping that the coronary outbreak could be brought under control at a relatively early stage, as the world dealt with the Sars virus in early 2003. But this time the spread was too extensive before the really important control measures could be implemented.” Røttingen told Nettavisen about what went wrong.

Several candidate vaccines are on the rise. On Friday, Sweden announced that it is purchasing the Moderna vaccine, which will therefore also be the hope of vaccines from Norway. Development has been at record speed, and Røttingen is optimistic that these vaccines, partly based on new technology, will soon be put into action.

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From animals to humans

At the same time, he is aware that virus-based pandemics are something we should expect to see more of in the future:

– We see it as a trend. There are more and more outbreaks of local viruses, and the WHO (World Health Organization) puts out fires around the world every week. There are known and new infectious diseases. To a large extent, it involves the transmission of viruses from animals to humans.

– Why is this a growing threat?

– The risk increases due to environmental changes, climate change, urbanization. We affect nature and the balance changes. Our influence increases the chances of virus transmission from animals to humans, says Røttingen.

– Greater attention

He has this recipe for how we should face the threat:

– We must have a greater awareness of this and, not least, a greater capacity in all countries to be able to detect new outbreaks early and to be able to control them at a relatively early stage.

It was here that it failed when the world, in late 2019, learned of the rapidly spreading pneumonia cases in China’s Wuhan province. It turned out to be a new virus that in January 2020 was classified as SARS-Cov-2. The infection spread very quickly between countries and continents. On March 11, the WHO declared the outbreak a pandemic. The coronavirus was detected in Norway for the first time on February 26.

During the spring, summer and fall, the pandemic continued in waves, in part with explosive growth in several countries. At the time of writing, the United States has the highest number of detected cases and deaths, 14 million and 276,000, respectively, according to a survey on the Johns Hopkins University website.

See excerpts from the interview with John-Arne Røttingen here:

– Must use 2022

The health ambassador in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs believes that it will be time before we can control the pandemic this time:

– I think we must spend a lot 2022 to ensure adequate global control of the pandemic. We live in a world closely intertwined with commerce, travel, and socializing across national borders. I believe that the coronavirus will also affect us in 2022, for example in relation to evaluations of travel activities and that we will operate with land in the yellow and red zones. It will take time for people to get properly vaccinated in all countries. Little by little, countries will relax measures and therefore we will still have some spread of the infection for a period.

On the prospect of getting rid of SARS-Cov-2 for good, it says this:

– We should probably expect to live with this virus in the future. Viruses are part of our ecosystem. We have to keep up. There may be seasonal breaks later. It may not be as regular as the flu, but we must be prepared for new outbreaks.

About the coronavirus

• The coronavirus family includes many different viruses that can cause respiratory infections. Many coronaviruses cause mild colds, while others can cause more serious illness and, in some cases, death.
• The new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has certain genetic similarities with the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) virus, which also belongs to the coronavirus family. The virus that causes MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) is another coronavirus.
• The coronavirus is also found in animals. In rare cases, the coronavirus can develop and spread from animal to human and between humans, as seen during the SARS epidemic of 2002/2003. Then the infection likely came from bats through civic cats and other animals. Dromedaries and camels are sources of infection for the MERS disease that was discovered in 2012.
• SARS-CoV-2 is likely to come from bats and will be transmitted to humans in late 2019, either directly or through another animal.

(Source: National Institute of Public Health)

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