A year after the first death, they believe that even with a vaccine there will be viruses for a while

Achieving long-awaited community immunity could take two years, even with vaccines, some experts / ap

It was January 9, 2020: that day, in one of the hospitals in the Chinese city of Wuhan, a 61-year-old man died. The cause of death in the records was respiratory failure due to severe pneumonia. Symptoms of the illness he was unable to overcome were similar to those of about 27 other patients who remained hospitalized at this hospital and other hospitals in the same city, a series that led health officials Chinese to inform the WHO of the emergence of this unknown evil.

A year after this first death, the world is far from abandoning the pandemic. One figure is enough to prove it: yesterday, when the anniversary of the death of this first patient was celebrated, a new world record of deaths was recorded, according to the World Health Organization: more than 15,000 deaths in 24 hours, which total number of deaths from COVID-19 worldwide among 1.9 million people (see separately).

But despite the fact that the arrival of vaccines (developed in a time that is also record) shines a glimmer of hope, specialists are cautious when analyzing the current situation of the global health crisis: they talk about this to what we will have to think about. live with the virus for at least two more years, at least, even with effective vaccines.

Meanwhile, they point out that there are still no antiviral therapies that have been shown to be effective against the more severe symptoms of the disease and point out that questions remain regarding key issues such as the timing of immunity. , both natural and artificial (see separate).

At the same time, a study known yesterday adds concerns, revealing that most people hospitalized for coronavirus around the world retain at least one symptom of the disease six months after their discharge (see separate)

second world hello

For Silvia González Ayala, professor of the chair of infectology at the National University of La Plata, the world is now going through “a second global wave” of the pandemic, which among us began to stand out on December 9 “. whereas it was planned for the month of April ”.

“You have to learn to live with the virus: we have been in a pandemic for a year and we are at least two years older. Even with vaccines, because they will slow down viral circulation, but it will take months to achieve community immunity and we must be attentive to what is happening with the new strains, ”said the specialist in dialogue with this journal.

In this sense, González a Ayala considers that the mutations of the virus are unpredictable, as well as the impact it can have on health systems.

“We need to take into account the effect of the stress that health workers are building up as the pandemic unfolds. They are overwhelmed, ”says the expert.

At the same time, he postulates that, a year after the first death, there are still no therapies for severe cases of coronavirus.

“We’ve been in a pandemic for a year and we’re at least two more years old. Even with the vaccines, because they will slow the circulation, but it will take months to achieve community immunity “

Silvia González Ayala, Infectologist

“For now, we can only talk about attempts. Great progress has been made, especially with recovered plasma which works in severe cases in the elderly if applied within the first three days. But we still don’t have therapy to cure the disease, ”he says.

However, the specialist highlights several advances that have been made since this first death in Wuhan and until today and in this direction especially highlights the race for vaccines.

“For the first time in history, several vaccines have been obtained in record time, which represents a great advance, especially considering the fact that the development of this type of product can take up to 25 years, ”says González Ayala.

At the same time, the health crisis triggered by the coronavirus could help generate warning systems to prevent or achieve faster and more effective action against a possible outbreak of new pandemics in the future.

“The coronavirus is believed to be a mild pandemic and among specialists around the world there are fears of an emerging zoonosis even more deadly,” says González Ayala.

The world’s first coronavirus death came just nine days after China reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) that in the city of Wuhan, nearly thirty people were suffering from strange original pneumonia unknown.

“A 61-year-old man died of pneumonia in central China’s Wuhan city during an outbreak of an as yet unidentified virus, while seven others are in critical condition,” said Wuhan Municipal Health Commission reported Jan. 11. , two days after the death, and reproduced the main world media.

This first death was one of the thousands of shoppers who regularly visited the Huanan Wholesale Market, the largest establishment selling seafood, but where it was also possible to source exotic animals than the merchants themselves. were slaughtering at the time.

After that, the virus quickly spread to the rest of the world, where it has already claimed the lives of 1.9 million people and caused 87.5 million infections, putting humanity in front of an unprecedented crisis that , for now, is far from over.