Global Infectious Diseases in November 2022: Monthly Analysis

Infectious diseases, such as COVID-19 and monkeypox, pose a severe threat to economic development in all countries, as well as to the health of people everywhere. The World Health Organization and National Health Council epidemiological websites were used herein as data sources. Shusi Tech’s Global Epidemic Information Monitoring System was used to analyze the data for infectious diseases, determine changes in global epidemics, determine the distribution and quantity of infectious disease cases from October 24, 2022 to November 23, 2022, and analyze their changing trends. Furthermore, the analysis of these data can be used to predict prevalence rates, and assess epidemic prevention and control measures.


COVID-19
According to the WHO, more than 10 million new COVID-19 cases have been reported globally, including more than 40,000 deaths. Over the past month, new confirmed cases and deaths have been reported on all continents, with varying trends. The Western Pacific region and Europe have reported the most new cases, followed by the Americas, which accounted for 98.08% of all new cases worldwide. Whether the epidemic has been effectively controlled remains unclear. In the Eastern Mediterranean, COVID-19 cases have been declining yet remain at approximately 200 cases per day, and the region must be cautious in the event of rebounding (Fig 2A, B). Although the Western Pacific region has reported more new confirmed cases, its number of deaths is lower than those in the Americas and Europe, where the numbers of cases have been relatively stable in the past week. Over the past few weeks, however, the number of deaths in the Americas has increased. After the onset of winter, a small outbreak occurred in Southeast Asia on November 2, 2022, possibly because of a decrease in temperature, diminished immunity, and limited medical resources. The outbreak was effectively controlled, and the mortality rate has decreased (Fig 2C, D). Because the data underlying this statistic are mainly from the WHO, data from Asia, Africa, and other regions needed to be included. Therefore, we supplemented the COVID-19 reports from China with data from the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China, NHC. Although COVID-19 has been under control for some time in China, prevalence has risen again in recent weeks in some areas. Guangdong Province has seen an explosive increase in cases, followed by Beijing and Chongqing (Fig 3). Because of a potential spike in population f low across the country as well as school winter vacations, epidemic prevention and control remain a high priority.

Monkeypox
Herein, analytical monkeypox data were collected via direct reporting of case-based data by WHO Member States. Owing to the variable completeness of records, the data were collected until November 27, 2022. The World Health Organization reported more than 5,000 new monkeypox cases between October 24 and November 23.
America had the highest number of new cases confirmed, followed by Europe. As shown in Fig 4, most deaths occurred in the Americas. To optimize the data presentation, the date is on the horizontal axis, and the numbers of new cases from each continent are indicated by the bubble size, and the number is provided. As shown in the figure, in the Americas, new cases have been reported sporadically in Brazil and the USA, whereas Colombia and Mexico have reported cases every few weeks. In Europe, Spain had the newest monkeypox cases, and Italy had a small outbreak on November 8 before the epidemic was effectively contained. As shown in Fig 5, although the epidemic trend has slowed in the past 2 months, vigilance remains essential (Fig 5).

Dengue
Because November is a summer month in the southern hemisphere, dengue transmission has increased significantly in South America and Africa. A significant increase in dengue infections with respect to the previous month has occurred in Nicaragua, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Salvador, Brazil, and the People's Republic of Bangladesh (Table 1) Philippines, and Malaysia experience high dengue infection rates.

Measles
Humans are the only natural hosts of the measles virus, which is spread mainly through droplet transmission and close contact. Spring and winter are high transmission seasons for measles virus. As of this month, several countries and regions still have measles viral infections ( Table 2). The measles virus can be prevented by vaccination, and countries should increase vaccination coverage in response to the increasing numbers of infections and deaths associated with the virus.

Cholera
Early in its history, cholera was a highly deadly and highly infectious disease. In November, large numbers of cholera infections were reported in Afghanistan, Somalia, Lebanon, Haiti, Cameroon, Syria, and Malawi (Table 3). Water sanitation in developing or war-torn countries remains a major concern, and targeted solutions may mitigate the spread of cholera.

Influenza
The risk of inf luenza is high during the autumn and winter. The following table shows inf luenza infection records in several developed countries (Table 4). Developed countries tend to have established health surveillance systems, which are essential for predicting and preventing infectious diseases.

Poliomyelitis
Over the past few years, poliomyelitis has spread in some regions. Poliomyelitis infection cases have been reported in some African, South American, and Asian countries in the past month, according to The Global Polio Website (Table 5). Despite the low numbers of infections, some countries, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, continue to see cases that warrant continued attention.

Tuberculosis
Recently, the number of tuberculosis infections has increased. Some countries have consistently tracked tuberculosis, similarly to inf luenza (Table 6). Last month, Korea and Japan recorded several hundred new TB infections per week, and the infected cases number is similar between two countres in 2022. Because the two countries have different total populations, they show significantly different actual infection rates.

Legionella
Detailed records of Legionella in November have been reported in Hong Kong, Taiwan (China), and Japan (Table 7). Table 7 indicates that Legionella cases are recorded every week in Japan. To prevent the disease from progressing, continued action by Asian countries remains necessary.

Amarylism
As shown in Table 8, amarylism has been reported in Africa, the Americas, and Southeast Asia. In comparison with the data from last month, many countries have reported Amarylism infection, thus indicating a trend of regional expansion of Amarylism infection. The disease has attracted the attention of relevant countries, and this attention will be crucial for controlling further epidemics.

Sporadic infectious diseases
Regional epidemiological trends in some infectious diseases have occurred over the past month. Several epidemic diseases are listed in Table 9, including parotiditis, chicken pox, leptospirosis, salmonella, helopyra, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, hepatitis C, West Nile fever, Chikungunya fever, Lassa fever, enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli, leishmaniasis, bacillary dysentery, tsutsugamushi, yersiniosis, Shiga-toxin-producing Escherichia coli, Typhoid fever, malleoidosis, Ebola malleoidosis, Ebola, cephalomeningitis, Zika virus, pestis, human infections with highly pathogenic avian inf luenza, rotavirus, Ross river virus, enzootic hepatitis, listeriosis, and Middle East respiratory syndrome. In some cases, these diseases have been affecting the indicated regions for an entire year but only now are receiving official attention.

CONCLUSION
As the autumn and winter seasons in the northern hemisphere approach, most countries are entering the traditional inf luenza season. Against the backdrop of continued global infection by novel coronaviruses, seasonal respiratory infectious diseases such as inf luenza appear to   Meanwhile, the prevalence of various infectious diseases is highest in Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia. Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an African country, reported last month that nearly a dozen infectious diseases, including measles, cholera, poliomyelitis, amarylism, helopyra, Typhoid fever, cephalomeningitis, and pestis, are of concern. The country's public health problems must be given the attention by the relevant authorities, while international organizations should also provide targeted assistance.
Mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue, West Nile fever, and Zika continue to be prevalent in the equatorial region. Because these diseases lack specific treatment options, a large-scale outbreak would be likely to have substantial economic repercussions. Consequently, prompt infection monitoring is imperative [7].
Although Cholera infections have become less common in some developed nations, Afghanistan continues to record large numbers of infections. Despite falling temperatures, the infections have not decreased, thus greatly affecting already vulnerable societies. In addition, some regional infectious diseases, although they spread only sporadically within several countries, must be closely monitored to study their spatial and temporal characteristics.