Just like HIV, coronavirus may never go away, WHO warns
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the coronavirus may never go away and populations around the world will have to learn to live with it.
The WHO Executive Director, Health Emergencies Programme, Michael Ryan, said that the coronavirus may become another endemic virus in the community and may never go away.
He told a virtual press conference in Geneva that just like the HIV has never gone away, there’s no clue as to when the novel coronavirus will disappear.
“HIV has never gone away. But, we have found ways for those who have HIV to live long and healthy lives for a longer period of time. We have to be realistic, we don’t know when the disease will disappear.
“If we can find a highly effective vaccine which we can distribute to everyone in the world who needs it, we could have a shot at eliminating it.
“We have a new virus entering the human population for the first time and therefore, it is very hard to predict when we will prevail over it,” Ryan observed.
Expanding on the point, Dr. Ryan supported his assertion by alluding to comments by health experts and politicians who have continually given estimates of 12 months before a vaccine can be developed and available.
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He explained that the number of people infected in the global population ‘is actually relatively low,, so projections on when the virus would abate had to be grounded in the fact that this might be in the absence of a vaccine.
This is coming as the number infected by the disease worldwide has soared to more than 4.3 million, while the death toll is nearing 300,000.
The prospect of the disease lingering in the population leaves governments faced with a balancing act between economic sustainability and containing the contagion.
