5 health threats that made headlines in 2020 other than the COVID-19 pandemic

The novel coronavirus brought the world into a standstill in 2020, but it was not the only threat the left people sleepless this year. Here are 5 other health scares that made headlines in 2020.

Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 will be remembered as one of the deadliest years in human history. The novel coronavirus, also called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has infected more than 78 million people and claimed 1.7 million lives globally (as of December 27, 2020) since it was first recognized in December 2019 in China's Wuhan city.

According to Anthony Fauci, America's top infectious diseases expert, COVID-19 is the worst pandemic in more than 100 years. The infamous Spanish flu of 1918-1919 is considered the worst pandemic in modern history. Caused by an H1N1 virus, it infected an estimated 500 million people (about one-third of the world's population) and killed an estimated 50 million more than the death toll for World War I.

While the COVID-19 pandemic remained the biggest treat of the year 2020, there were a few other health scares that made headlines this year. These include:

Bubonic plague

While scientists and health experts were busy trying to find a solution to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, a deadly infection surfaced in China in July this year. Chinese authorities issued a health warning after a suspected case of bubonic plague was identified at a hospital in the city of Bayannur in Inner Mongolia.

Bubonic plague is a bacterial infection mostly spread by rodents. As many as 3248 cases of bubonic plague were documented worldwide between 2010 and 2015, including 584 deaths. The plague caused an epidemic called Black Death in the 14th century, killing an estimated 50 million people.

New swine flu strain

India was hit by another health scare amidst the COVID-19 pandemic this year. In March 2020, 71 swine flu cases were reported from Uttar Pradesh's Meerut district, including nine deaths. In July this year, Chinese researchers discovered a new flu strain in pigs that they thought has the potential to trigger a pandemic. Called the G4 virus, the new strain was believed to be a version of the swine flu (H1N1 virus) that caused a pandemic in 2009. The researchers feared that virus, which is carried by pigs, may mutate and become human-to-human transmissible.

Eluru's mysterious illness

Andhra Pradesh's Eluru town was hit by a mysterious illness with symptoms resembling epilepsy early December 2020. It affected hundreds of people who complained of 3 to 5 minutes of epileptic fits without repetition, forgetfulness, anxiety, vomiting, headache, and back pain. Excessive amounts of heavy metals, such as lead and nickel, were found in the blood samples of patients suffering from the unknown disease. However, sources of these metals were not known.

Zoonotic malaria parasite

In September 2020, AIIMS researchers sounded an alarm after finding the presence of a zoonotically transmitted malaria parasite in Indian patients from the states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Delhi. They detected the presence of malaria parasite 'Plasmodium knowlesi' while doing a study on patients with Acute Febrile Illnesses (AFI) and pathogens causing them. Plasmodium knowlesi is found in nature in long-tailed and pig-tailed macaques. It can cause fever 9-12 days after the infection. In severe cases, it may lead to organ failure as well, according to the WHO.

Deadly brain-eating amoeba

Scientists from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) raised an alarm this month that a deadly brain-eating amoeba is slowly spreading across the United States. Called naegleria fowleri, the single-cell organism causes a devastating brain infection called primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) when it enters the brain through the nose. In a study published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, the researchers cautioned that naegleria fowleri that is usually found in warm freshwater like rivers, ponds, lakes and springs is gradually advancing northwards from the southern United States.