Since its inception in February of this year, the coronavirus pandemic has been one of the most difficult health crises to control and understand since the virus causing it, which is SARS-CoV-2, is relatively new and all research on it has been conducted in the past six months only. However, the epidemic is soon expected to develop further into a “twindemic“.
In the past few months, researchers have discovered new aspects and behaviors of the novel coronavirus as well as clarified a number of confusions regarding the infection.
For instance, at the beginning of the pandemic, the majority of the people, including the medical community, assumed that the impact of the virus was limited to the lungs and the virus primarily caused respiratory illness in infected people.
Now, doctors and health experts have reported multiple effects of the infection on other parts of the body as well. In fact, scientists now say that the virus can cause kidney, liver, heart, and blood-related disorders while having he infection and even later in life.
This is why people with certain medical conditions such as heart disease, obesity, and diabetes are advised to take additional steps for the prevention of the coronavirus as they are more likely to develop a severe form of the infection and also have associated long-term complications.
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Even though researchers are finding more and more about the infection each day, which can also help in controlling the pandemic and in the development of the vaccine, the crisis is expected to worsen instead of improving in the coming months due to the changing weather.
The start of winters and colder weather can make other diseases, whose symptoms resemble that of the coronavirus infection, common among all age groups.
More precisely, this year’s flu season is now expected to be the worst in years as it is likely to coincide with the current public health issue. The outcome of this is going to be the beginning of a “Twindemic” in the US as well as elsewhere in the world.
Every year, the common flu is also responsible for hundreds of hospitalizations and deaths. During its season, hospitals are usually accomodating a lot of people experiencing flu and related health issues.
However, the hospitals and the healthcare system of most of the countries are currently already overwhelmed due to the high number of incoming coronavirus patients.
Even though a number of countries have managed to control their transmission rates to an extent, the risk of the virus is still very high. In addition, scientists argue that even after the pandemic is over, recovering from its effects and re-building a stronger healthcare system can take months to even years.
Therefore, the incoming twindemic which will combine flu and coronavirus is, at the moment, one of the biggest causes of concern for the medical community around the world.
For people, it should be a sign of why following the preventive measures given by all health agencies including the U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention is fundamental and the crisis is far from being over yet.
