Global Infectious Diseases in October 2022: Monthly Analysis

Infectious diseases continue to pose a major threat to worldwide public health. Infections by Coronavirus Disease 2019 have eased but continue to negatively affect international economic development. The situation of other infectious diseases, such as monkeypox and mosquito-borne diseases, became stable in October. Monitoring epidemic situation of infectious diseases can provide rapid insight into global transmission trends and assist in predicting epidemic situations. Visualizations and analyses summarizing the past few weeks of global data on major infectious diseases are provided.


INTRODUCTION
Globally, severe outbreaks of infectious diseases, including Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), have plagued the 21st century, destroying people's lives and livelihoods [1]. In addition to epidemic prevention measures, vaccines, and specific remedies, regional and case monitoring are essential to comprehensively control infectious diseases. Climate and regional factors greatly affect the spread of infectious diseases. As winter approaches, respiratory infections become more common. COVID-19 and inf luenza are significantly more likely to outbreak synchronously in winter, particularly with the onset of the f lu season. Globally, BA.5.2 is the dominant strain of the Omicron variant. Other contagious diseases, such as monkeypox, remain prevalent worldwide.
Therefore, reviewing infectious disease data regularly is crucial to monitor potential changes in transmission rates and modes. Analyzing epidemiological data can increase understanding of how epidemics spread and their speed of spread. A summary of the major infectious diseases worldwide, on the basis of the Shusi Tech's Global Epidemic Information Monitoring System, is presented in this article. (Fig 1).

COVID-19
Globally, more than 10 million new cases and more than 30,000 deaths were reported between September 24 and October 24 (Fig 2). According to statistics, the cases in the Americas have yet to be effectively controlled. In contrast, other regions are seeing a leveling off of case increases with respect to the previous month [2]. In China, Xinjiang and Guangdong showed continual increases in cases with respect to the prior month. The highest numbers of confirmed cases and asymptomatic infections were found in Inner Mongolia in early October, possibly because of travel associated with National Day. The Tibetan region showed a clear decreasing trend after effective control in mid-October. countries and U.S.A as of October 2022. As shown in Table 1, the number of new infections decreased this month with respect to the previous 2 months. Because monkeypox has been responded to and treated effectively in many countries, it has been controlled in most epidemic areas. However, vigilance is necessary in case another epidemic occurs.

Dengue
As shown in Table 2, the dengue virus spread mainly in Southeast Asia and America in October 2022, and the number of newly reported infections decreased with respect to the prior month. Dengue virus is likely to spread more slowly after this month as mosquito-borne diseases decrease with the cooler weather.

Measles
The measles virus is spreading rapidly in African, South Asian, and American populations. In developing countries, measles is a major epidemic because of a lack of vaccination. Table 3 shows the global measles outbreak report as of the past month.

Malaria
According to Table 4, Nigeria, Congo, and Chad reported most of the malaria cases in the past month. More than 2 million new cases of infection were reported in Congo last month, whereas Nigeria and Chad reported 70 thousand and 80 thousand cases, respectively.

Zika virus and Chikungunya virus
Zika virus spreads in the same region as the Chikungunya virus (including El Salvador, Guatemala, and Brazil). Brazil reported the most cases of these two viruses. Because these two viruses do not have a specific drug or vaccine available, attention should be paid to their epidemics from May to November of each year. Tables 5 and 6 summarize last month's Zika and Chikungunya virus reports.

Cholera
As of October 2022, Lebanon has faced a new cholera epidemic as shown in Table 7. Cholera infections increased to a greater extent than observed last month, and most cases were concentrated in Congo, Somalia, Nigeria, and Afghanistan.

Influenza
The high mutability and infectivity of the inf luenza virus have caused many outbreaks worldwide. As shown in Table 8, inf luenza infection rates increased in the U.S.A. and Canada in October 2022. The inf luenza epidemic should be monitored over the next few months to prevent a major outbreak.

Poliomyelitis
According to the Global polio website, poliomyelitis/ poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) has spread mainly in African countries, including Mozambique, Pakistan, Yemen, the Central African Republic, Somalia Nigeria, and Congo. Notably, circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 1 (cVDPV1) and circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) outbreaks in Congo and a cVDPV2 outbreak in Yemen occurred. More details are shown in Table 9.

Other infectious diseases
Over the past month, some continents or countries have reported sporadic spread of Lassa fever, viral hepatitis, yellow fever, and West Nile fever (Table 10). Notably, the Ebola virus arrived in Uganda this month.

CONCLUSION
Since October, SARS-CoV-2 infections and mortality rates have decreased worldwide. Owing to its extreme immune escape, COVID-19 remains a threat to the older and immunocompromised people, despite to higher vaccination coverage [3]. Inf luenza places a major burden on society and the health care system [4]. Inf luenza and novel coronaviruses present very similar clinical symptoms. SARS-CoV-2 is not detectable by real-time reverse transcription PCR in early infection stage, particularly if patients test positive for inf luenza [5,6]. In Canada and           [7]. A study by Khani has suggested that brincidofovir and tecovirimat may be effective against monkeypox. The development of monkeypox-targeted drugs is encouraged, despite genomic sequence conservationed of orthopoxviruses [8]. This summer, several countries experienced serious outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases. The most severe epidemics occurred in Southeast Asia and the Americas. Researchers are developing various genetic modification technologies to limit the survival of mosquito vector [9]. Meanwhile, vaccines against mosquito-borne viruses are continually being developed [10,11].