The world population currently stands at approximately 7,768,882,000 people. Every day, about 400,000 people are born and about 170,000 die. Since the beginning of the year, 10.5 million people have died in the world. Of these, 2.3 million people died from infectious diseases.
37,612,469 people in the world have HIV (AIDS). 299,097 died of the disease this year. Most of them are in Africa. 1,461,260 people have died of cancer since the beginning of the year. 174,500 died of mosquito-borne malaria. Most of them in Asia.
240,100 were killed in road accidents around the world and about 200,000 put an end to their lives. 890,000 people died as a result of smoking. Most of them in the Western and Arab world.
More than 300,000 people have been infected with the Coronavirus all over the world. 95,000 have recovered, many suffered only mild symptoms of the disease, 14,000 people have died, many of them elderly or immunocompromised.
19 million people have been affected by the flu (influenza) since September 2019. 180,000 were hospitalized. In the US alone, 10,000 people died of flu this year. According to the CDC, by 2020, approximately 22 million people will be infected by the flu in the United States.
True, the coronavirus’s infection rates are higher than the seasonal flu, and mortality rates are also significantly higher. However they are still around 3-4%. In most patients, the symptoms are often mild and an overwhelming majority of patients completely recover from the disease.
Most definitely, follow your health agency’s instruction. Practice social distancing in order to avoid catching the virus, to maintain health, eat proper nutrition and keep up your fitness to strengthen your immune system.
In truth, the outbreak may get worse. Of course, it is worth pursuing a vaccine if possible. Many more will be affected by Covid-19 disease and, unfortunately, we understand that more people will die..
But it’s also important to keep things in proportion.
* This post does not address the political, economic and social implications and is merely an opinion piece. All epidemic data is taken from the World Health Organization website. Images from Wikipedia.
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