The public will always face infectious disease threats, experts note in light of the end of the US public health emergency in May. In 2007, the World Health Organization warned that infectious diseases were emerging at a higher-than-ever rate.
Since the 1970s, about 40 infectious diseases have been discovered, including SARS, MERS, Ebola, avian and swine flu, Zika and COVID-19. Other particularly deadly concerns include malaria, SARS, West Nile virus, cholera, pertussis, pneumococcal disease and Marburg virus, the last of which kills nine out of every 10 people it infects.
One of the most alarming diseases long-term care providers must often confront is Candida auris, a highly drug-resistant fungus spreading quickly in nursing homes and hospitals. It has been called one of the greatest emerging threats to public health, and its presence spread throughout the pandemic.
“The pandemic severely impacted the delivery of, and access to, healthcare,” said Steven J. Schweon, RN, CIC, a member of APIC’s Emerging Infectious Diseases Task Force. “Preventing and treating COVID, as healthcare facilities were overwhelmed with patients, became a priority, for healthcare organizations and our public health partners. It became very challenging to focus on COVID and concurrently monitor for all the other infectious diseases threats.”
Antimicrobial resistance is a major reason for rapidly re-emerging diseases, while climate change may be driving some new viruses to surface. Some routine vaccination rates also plummeted during COVID, and vaccine hesitancy may be contributing to increased rates of some diseases.
That notion, however, is not without skeptics when it comes to seniors.
“I’m not certain that vaccine hesitancy is causing an increase in the re-emergence of disease in our elderly residents,” said Kristi Felix, infection prevention manager for Lincoln, NE-based Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals. “However, it could be an issue for those who could not be vaccinated or who are immune-compromised, if they are being cared for by staff who are not vaccinated for diseases that have been pretty much nonexistent for years.”
