In many areas including the Rio Grande Valley, COVID cases are once again increasing in number. The surge coincides with the fact that many residents have eased back on many of the precautions they had undertaken during the height of the pandemic. Many have stopped wearing masks in public places and washing their hands or using sanitizing substances with the same frequency. Many of our popular grocery and department stores no longer provide disinfectant wipes or solutions at their entrances.
The increase in cases should warrant concern with schools preparing to open in the next few weeks. Their opening is quickly followed by the return of sporting events and other public gatherings where COVID and other contagious diseases can spread.
It also gives us reason to monitor a new disease that has reached epidemic numbers in some parts of the world and could become a new pandemic. Two strains of monkeypox are spreading in the Middle East, Australia and the Iberian peninsula, and cases already have been reported in the United States. The rapid spread of COVID-19 already has shown us how a viral disease can sweep across the country without the proper precautions.
Monkeypox is a viral disease related to smallpox, a global plague that killed millions of people before it was eradicated in 1980. The success of that eradication has made vaccination unnecessary. While monkeypox is not as contagious as smallpox, medical officials say the old vaccine was 85% effective against the new disease, which attacks lymph nodes and produces smallpox-like rashes.
Monkeypox is not thought to be transmitted through the air; it primarily spreads through direct contact; it can linger on hotel bedding or towels, counters or door handles.
Those outbreaks, however, offer a stark reminder that a harmful germ could exist at any public place and on any item that other people have handled — including clothing and other items on store racks and shelves.
While there is no reason to be alarmed about monkeypox in the Valley, and it is hoped that it never will spread to the extent that the COVID virus did, the persistence of COVID here and other areas should give us reason to continue washing our hands frequently, sanitizing when possible and continuing other practices that helped us bring the pandemic to more manageable levels.
Those practices should include routine vaccinations that have proven effective against many contagious diseases. Many are still required to enroll our children in most schools.
It’s worth noting that a recent trend by many families to eschew vaccinations has coincided with a return of many diseases that had been virtually eliminated, such as an outbreak of mumps that occurred in HidalgoCounty in 2019. More recently, an unvaccinated man in New York contracted polio last month.
The COVID pandemic taught or reminded us of basic precautions we can take to help stave off diseases, and the threat of monkeypox reminds us that COVID isn’t an isolated threat. It’s best of those precautions aren’t used as strategies against a specific disease, but become permanent habits that help ensure longer and healthier lives.
