The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) may never go away, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.
Executive Director of the WHO health emergencies program, Mike Ryan, said the virus may just become one of the viruses around the world that kill people annually.
“This virus just may become another endemic virus in our communities and this virus may never go away. HIV hasn’t gone away,” Ryan said on Wednesday.
“I’m not comparing the two diseases but I think it is important that we’re realistic. I don’t think anyone can predict when or if this disease will disappear”.
HIV/AIDS was first clinically observed in 1981 in the United States, it has gone on to kill nearly a million people and has infected over 38 million people across the world.
Over 30 years on, no vaccine has been found for HIV, but research is ongoing to beat the disease.
Ryan said with a vaccine, “we may have a shot at eliminating this virus but that vaccine will have to be available, it will have to be highly effective, it will have to be made available to everyone and we’ll have to use it.
“This disease may settle into a long-term problem or it may not be.”
