SCIENCE. Traditionally, public health is the poor relation of health budgets, which rather give pride of place to hospitals and treatments. But public health is practically everything that happens before you are hospitalized or before you need treatment. In 2024, what were the warning signs that raised fears for 2025?
Dengue, mpox and avian flu
Main short-term alarms: epidemics. Clearly, health services would not want to be faced with another global outbreak so soon after the previous one. This is why a large number of experts have carefully observed the evolution of the dengue virus and the mpox virus in 2024.
In the Americas, 12.6 million cases of dengue fever were reported during the first 11 months of the year, compared to 4.6 million cases in 2023, according to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). This resulted in 21,000 hospitalizations and 7,700 deaths. Some 90% of cases were in four countries: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. Vaccination campaigns have been undertaken in the first two, but current vaccines have only limited effectiveness.
The virus that causes a fever — dengue fever — is transmitted by mosquitoes. And although the disease has been endemic to these regions for a long time, mosquitoes seem to have gradually expanded their territory over the past twenty years, thanks to the warmer climate. However, it is not explained what caused this sudden explosion in 2024. But the result is that, further north, we notice more and more tourists returning home after having contracted the fever in question.
As for cases of mpox, they are much fewer — 60,000 confirmed cases in Africa for the first 11 months of the year. But this figure confirms that the disease continues to advance, and that it continues to be frequently reported, albeit on a smaller scale, outside of Africa — a fact that prompted the World Health Organization to decree a first alert in 2022, then to suspend it in 2023, then to reactivate it last August.
The smallpox vaccine appears to provide adequate protection, and new vaccines could arrive in 2025. But they still need to be available in the most affected regions, and this is where there is a lack of protection. public health: the authorities of the main African countries affected have constantly reminded people for two years that supplies leave much to be desired.
Finally, there is avian flu: we are talking about a tiny scale here, compared to the two previous diseases – around sixty cases so far – but it is a strain of flu which, only a few years ago , was not even widespread among mammals and has since infected dozens of species, including cows in particular. And it is to the latter that we owe the majority of human cases.
Let us also remember, for those who doubt it, that COVID is still circulating. There was even a new wave of infections in the United States over the summer. An updated version of the vaccines was approved in this country in August.
Extreme heat, a public health problem
As the expansion of dengue fever reminds us, global warming increases the risks of certain infectious diseases. But beyond that, heatwaves are a health problem in themselves: in India, the United States, Europe, Australia, extreme heatwaves have caused more deaths and hospitalizations this year, and nothing shows that the trend must be reversed. Some countries, such as the United States, have even added an “indicator” of the risk of death in such cases — and compile a compilation of “heat-related deaths”.
Lack of drinking water, a public health problem
More than half of the world’s population has limited access to drinking water, but the situation was neither worse nor better in 2024. It is in the longer term that we fear that this The number is increasing due to the decline in groundwater. This could make us forget that drinking water is a human right, as defined by the United Nations.
It is a problem that amplifies other public health problems: during heatwaves, the lack of water puts lives at risk, and water sources without a treatment plant worthy of the name encourage the proliferation of mosquitoes and diseases. In the spring, there were even fears for a few weeks that the megalopolis of Mexico (22 million inhabitants) would have to cut off the water supply for a few hours a day, due to drought.
Link to original article
https://www.sciencepresse.qc.ca/actualite/2024/12/19/sante-publique-mondiale-vers-2025
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