COVID-19 Pandemic: Both a Blessing and Curse (original) (raw)
Academic Publication , 2020
The new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pneumonia that occurred in Wuhan, China in December 2019 is a highly contagious disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the current outbreak of a global public health emergency. It was originally called the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) and was recently reclassified as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The disease it causes is called Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). First observed in Wuhan, China, it is now rapidly spreading throughout the world. As of April 15, 2020, 2,034,913 confirmed cases have been confirmed worldwide, with 129,913 deaths. The World Health Organization (WHO) called COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020. However, vaccines are not available, so the best way to fight the virus is prophylactic.
Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic: Scenario of Myths and Facts
Annals of Community Health, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic started off in China in December 2019, which was declared as Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) by the World Health Organization (WHO) on January 30, 2020, and later, it was declared as pandemic on March 11, 2020. [4-7] The first case of COVID-19 in India was reported on January 30, 2020. [4] Coronaviruses are enveloped non-segmented positive-sense RNA viruses which belong to the family Coronaviridae and the order Nidovirales and mainly distributed in humans and other mammals. While, most human coronavirus infections are mild, the epidemics of two betacoronaviruses, severe
Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic: A Race Against Time
Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry, 2020
The emergence of a novel coronavirus, 2019-nCoV in Wuhan, Hubei province of China, at the end of 2019 and its rapid spread across the world has been alarming. This is the third outbreak of coronaviruses in the recent past after the SARS-CoV outbreak in 2002 and MERS-CoV in 2012. SARS-CoV2, a zoonotic virus that has originated in bats and jumped species from animals to infect humans, spreads mainly through human to human transmission from respiratory droplets on sneezing or coughing. This virus was named 2019-nCoV and the disease caused by it is referred to as COVID-19. The current 2019-nCoV outbreak was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by WHO on 30 th January 2020. The gravity of the situation can be gauged by the fact that the number of cases has soared to 179112 cases and 7426 deaths and it has spread to 170 countries and territories claiming 8,272 lives [1]. WHO has declared the current outbreak of Coronavirus as pandemic on March 11, 2020. This is the first pandemic caused by a Coronavirus, and it has forced public health experts and policymakers to swing in action to control the situation. Symptoms include fever, dry cough, fatigue, pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat, shortness of breath, and breathing difficulties. In severe cases, the infection may lead to complications like pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and sometimes death. The virus has an incubation period of 1-14 days with many symptoms overlapping with the common cold and similar diseases. A recent study revealed the gender bias in COVID-19 as mortality and vulnerability were found to be higher in men compared to women [2]. 2019-nCoV(SARS-CoV2) is an enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus belonging to subgenus Sarbecovirus of the genus Betacoronavirus of Coronaviridae family. This genus also includes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARSCoV) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS). Coronaviruses are spherical with club-shaped glycoprotein spikes or projections on their surface giving it a "corona" or halo-like appearance. Known to have one of the largest viral RNA genomes, the 2019-nCoV has a genome size of 29,891 bp with a GC content of 38% and codes for 9860 amino acids. It codes for 16 non-structural proteins, viz. chymotrypsin-like protease, papain-like protease, helicase, and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase(RdRp), and other non-structural proteins that play role in replication and transcription of the virus. The virus has four structural proteins, viz., spike surface glycoprotein, small envelope protein, matrix protein, nucleocapsid protein, and accessory proteins [3, 4]. Till 17.03.20, complete genomes of a total of 87 strains of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV2) have been sequenced. Out of these, 48 strains have been isolated from the USA, 28 strains are from China, 2 each from India and Taiwan, and 1 each from Japan, Italy, Brazil, Australia, Sweden, Nepal, and South Korea. Entrez entry on 17.3.2020 suggests the availability of 93 nucleotide sequences, 496 protein sequences, 22 genes and also a complete genome sequence (NC_045512) from the sample of the epicenter Wuhan.
International Journal of Pathogen Research
The 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCov) has been implicated in the outbreak of an uncommon pneumonia in Chinese City of Wuhan, Hubei Province first reported in late December 2019. Since then, infection has spread to other Chinese cities, as well as internationally, threatening to trigger a pandemic. On January 30 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) in an effort to slow down the global spread of the virus declared the outbreak, “A global public health emergency of international concern”. As at the time of this review, there were more than 31 000 confirmed cases and 638 deaths reported globally. Controversies exist on the origin of the virus with diverse views. The swift rise in morbidity and mortality rate of the virus has caused widespread alarm in China and other parts of the world. This review is aimed at providing relevant information on the possible origin of the virus, its mode of transmission, associated risk factors, existing controversies, consequences of the current tr...
Universite de Liege, 2020
In December 2019, an outbreak of Novel beta coronavirus, named Novel CORONAVIRUS (SARS-COV-2) in Wuhan city, Hubei province, China. The worldwide epidemic affecting all ages and more than six million infections. The Coronavirus (Covid-19) manifestations consist of fever, cough, dyspnea, myalgia, headache and diarrhea, transmission through respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes. The elderly are at greater risk for complications of the epidemic virus, together with people with chronic diseases and those with a compromised immune system as in the case of cancer or HIV. It is recommended for the elderly, Regular physical activity for staying healthy, with moderate-intensity exercise and balanced food intake with supplements to reduce feelings of stress and boost mental and physical performance and general health and muscle and bone healing and immunity.
Current Status and Novel Strategies for Prevention and Treatment of Corona Virus
In early 2020, a new virus began generating headlines all over the world because of the unprecedented speed of its transmission. A novel strain of corona virus-SARS-CoV-2-was first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, a city in China's Hubei province with a population of 11 million, after an outbreak of pneumonia without an obvious cause. The virus officially named SARS-CoV-2 has affected thousands, with a rising death till now over 62,784. The virus has now spread to over 208 countries (Till 5 April 2020) across the globe, and was characterized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020. The disease caused by an infection with SARS-CoV-2 is called COVID-19, which stands for corona virus disease 2019.
Covid-19 Pandemic: A Blessing In Disguise
JOURNAL OF HALAL INDUSTRY & SERVICES
The year 2020 was taken over by a global pandemic with a newly identified coronavirus 2019-nCoV (now known as COVID-19 virus) sweeping across continents since its emergence in December 2019 (Letchumanan et al., 2019). The first COVID-19 case was reported in Wuhan, one of the districts in the People’s Republic of China. It most probably had originated from a market selling and serving exotic and endangered animal species such as bats, snakes, rats, etc. The genome sequence of this novel coronavirus has been deposited in the GenBank as reported by Letchumanan et al. (2019).
2020
The origin of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that has caused the COVID-19 worldwide<br> pandemic remains unknown. Here I report that the earliest genomic cluster is a group of four<br> patients associated with the General Hospital of Central Theater Command of People's Liberation<br> Army (PLA) of China in Wuhan. This cluster contains the "Founder Patients" of both Clade A and<br> Clade B, from which every SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that has infected every patient with COVID-<br> 19 anywhere in the world has arisen, including the infection of the President of the United States.<br> The observation that the genomic files for these patients were created on December 10, 2019 but<br> the PLA Hospital did not record the collection of the specimens until weeks later is unusual and<br> unexplained. However, it would be consistent with a vaccine challenge clinical trial (in which case<br> files are set up in anticipation of getting...