Health Security Highlights of 2022
- Venkat Rao
- Dec 31, 2022
- 3 min read
Authored by: Venkat Rao
There was no dearth for health security challenges during 2022. To name a few, Omicron variants known by various designations kept the COVID-19 pandemic in the forefront worldwide. New cases of monkeypox (Mpox) were reported in Europe early in the summer which as of 20 December 2022 has 21, 055 confirmed reported cases from 29 EU/EEA countries, and 29,792 cases reported in the USA. Nonetheless, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of Mpox cases have dwindled globally by 49.3% with majority of the new cases reported in the Region of the Americas.
Threat of Antimicrobial resistance continues to grow with nearly 5 million deaths annually worldwide. We will continue to closely monitor the problems of antimicrobial resistance.
Another major 2022 global event was the 9th Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), in Geneva, Switzerland, which concluded on December 16, 2022. A crucial topic of the BWC was treaty verification related discussions, which I will blog in the coming months.
Another historic event in 2022 is the Pandemic Treaty aimed at protecting the world from future infectious disease threats. Spearheaded by the WHO, the treaty aims to develop an international mechanism to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
Here is a recap of the health security challenges and progress in 2022.
Happy New Year!
December 20, 2022 Authored by: Venkat Rao As 2022 draws to a close, it is a good time to take stock of the two years of COVID-19
Origin of Omicron—The Most Contagious Virus In Human History December 7, 2022 Authored by: Venkat Rao Leaving aside for at least now the source and origin of the Wuhan SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19,
November 26, 2022
Authored By: Venkat Rao Were National Football League (NFL) games a source for spread of COVID-19?
November 13, 2022
Authored by: Venkat Rao I was at the just concluded Annual Meeting of the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
October 27, 2022
Authored by: Venkat Rao
Breakthrough health research and innovations in biotechnology and medicine doubled the life expectancy of human...
October 18, 2022
Authored by Venkat Rao
Are the nation’s largest grocery chains stocked with food products at-risk of exposure to superbugs?
October 11, 2022
Authored by Venkat Rao
Early in 2020 an unvaccinated teenager in Los Angeles tested positive for Flu and
COVID-19 infections at the same...
October 4, 2022
Authored by: Venkat Rao
Iceberg comes as a good analogy to what we currently know about the neurological and psychiatric disease burden...
September 18, 2022
Authored by: Venkat Rao
In a just published disease surveillance report, a high prevalence of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, among...
OTHER KEY HEALTH SECURITY ISSUES COVERED IN 2022:
September 6, 2022
Authored by: Venkat Rao
Nothing is straightforward when it comes to published literature on the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination...
August 29, 2022
Authored by: Venkat Rao
Polio, a potentially deadly and disabling infectious diseases caused by poliovirus appears to be making a...
August 22, 2022
Authored by: Venkat Rao
A couple of days ago, New York Department of Health confirmed the first known case of Monkeypox in a juvenile...
August 16, 2022
Authored by: Venkat Rao
Yes. A recent study published in the latest issue of Lancet reports a remarkable finding of a 2021 nationwide...
August 8, 2022
Authored by: Venkat Rao Superbugs are certain strains of viruses, bacteria and fungi that are resistant to most currently available...
August 1, 2022
Authored by: Venkat Rao
CRISPR gene editing technology became a game changer in genomic research when the genome editing technology was...
July 25, 2022
Authored by: Venkat Rao
With a growing and continued onslaught of high-consequence infectious diseases such as Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers,...
July 18, 2022
Authored by: Venkat Rao
According to a recent study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), COVID-19 vaccination may...
July 11, 2022
Authored by: Venkat Rao
The Ninth Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) is slated to take place in Geneva, Switzerland from 28 November to...
July 2, 2022
Authored by: Venkat Rao
According to a recent report from the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy CIDRAP), a study...
Thank you very much Dr. Rao for this recap of important public health events that occurred in 2022.
Indeed, I would add to this the ASTMH annual conference held in October-November 2022 in Seattle, Washington, after two years of Covid-19 without a mass gathering. It was an opportunity to bring together over 4000 participants ,professors, physician ,researchers, mentors, students, and all those interested in public health issues. Many topics were presented, research done in various health fields were exposed and published, lessons learned were numerous and progress made was noted. perspectives and research areas were identified.
I would also like to mention the 2nd African Public Health Conference held in December 2022 in Kigali Rwanda where numerous health researches in…