Question

The topic of Emerging Diseases is very current in our lives today. Please compare and contrast Covid 19 with one of the many previous pandemics that affected the USA in the past.

Answer 1

Emerging disease is a disease whose incidence or cases has increased recently in the past 20 years or so, and could further increase in the near future.

Previous pandemic- H1N1 swine flu pandemic- 2009-2010.

-The 2009 swine flu pandemic was caused by a new strain of H1N1 that originated in Mexico in the spring of 2009 before spreading in the rest of the world. The corona virus disease or COVID-19 is caused by a novel coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2. It first emerged in Wuhan, China in 2019.

- In one year, the virus infected 1.4 billion people across the globe and killed between 151,700 and 575,400 people. The mortality rate for the COVID-19 is much higher so far.

-The flu pandemic primarily affected children and young adults and 80% deaths were of people younger than 65 years of age. But so far, COVID-19 is most deadly for people over 60, who have underlying health conditions or comorbidity.

- A vaccine for the H1N1 virus that caused the swine flu is now included in the annual flu vaccine. The vaccine for corona virus is under research and yet to be developed.

- Another difference is that flu viruses are spread in respiratory droplets and airborne particles, while 2019-CoV-2 is primarily spread through respiratory droplets and in some cases may be shed in feces.

-Just like flu, COVID-19 can also cause respiratory issues that lead to serious problems such as pneumonia.

- The H1N1 flu was also less contagious than the novel coronavirus.

- For the 2009 H1N1 virus, the mean R-nought value (reproduction number) was 1.46 and for the coronavirus it is between 2 and 2.5, at the moment.

- COVID-19 is the first pandemic in the vast social media era and hence, the wealth of misinformation about the disease has spread faster than the virus.

- The positive side of living in this advanced technological age is the speed at which research and vaccine development can occur.