Coronavirus is a recently discovered virus that is responsible for causing infectious coronavirus disease (COVID-19). It was declared as a public health emergency on the international level by WHO (World Health Organization) in January 2020. It started from Wuhan, China as an outbreak of viral pneumonia and later became a pandemic worldwide. The person-to-person transmission of the virus led to the global pandemic and self-isolation of people. Coronaviruses are usually responsible for causing diseases in invertebrates and humans. No way of destroying the virus has been found since its discovery. Its global spread has caused millions of deaths. The disease has caused a major impact on the economy, education system, and physical and mental health. The current short review summarizes the available knowledge about pandemic, morphology, and characteristics of coronavirus, diagnosis, drugs being used for treatment, and current vaccine trials. The governments, health organizations, and scientific communities are working their best to find a vaccine and cure to fight coronavirus. Several vaccine trials have started and succeeded so far.
Keywords: health issues, infectious disease, vaccine,
SARS – Cov: A Global Pandemic
There’s a significant illness recorded in human history, and the pandemic-related crises have caused enormous negative impacts on health, economies, and even national security in the world. In this context, the last two pandemics that the world has experienced will be explained. We will compare the differences between SARS and Covid 19
The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) was first identified in Guangdong, China on November 16, 2002. The outbreak is lasted for about 8 months, the World Health Organization declared that this virus was contained on July 5, 2003. SARS is an airborne virus and can spread through small droplets of saliva in a similar way to the cold and influenza. SARS can also be spread indirectly via surfaces that have been touched by someone who is infected with the virus. It was the first severe and readily transmissible new disease to emerge in the 21st century and showed a clear capacity to spread along the routes of international air travel. Most patients identified with SARS were previously healthy adults aged 25–70 years-old. A few suspected cases of SARS have been reported among children under 15 years. The incubation period of SARS is usually 2-7 days up to 10 days. SARS was caused by a new coronavirus that had never been found in people before. The illness spread to 29 countries, where 8,096 people got SARS, and 774 of them died. Since 2004, there have not been any known cases of SARS reported anywhere in the world. Only eight people in the United States got SARS. None of them died. Health professionals around the world worked together to successfully contain the outbreak in 2003. In six months, the global SARS outbreak cost the world an estimated $40 billion. (Wikipedia)
In December 2019, SARS-CoV-2, a new strain of coronavirus closely related to the one that causes SARS, was discovered in Wuhan, Hubei, China. This new strain causes COVID-19, a disease that has spread worldwide, leading to an ongoing pandemic. The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, dry cough, and fatigue. While the severe symptoms are shortness of breath, loss of appetite, confusion, persistent pain or pressure in the chest, and high temperature, above 38 °C. According to the World Health Organization as of February 23, 2021, there are 111,279,860 confirmed cases all over the world, deaths are 2,466,639.
Covid 19 and SARS are similar in many ways such as, they are both respiratory illnesses caused by coronaviruses, they are believed to have originated in bats, jumping to the humans. They spread by respiratory droplets produced when person cough or sneeze who are infected. Estimates of the mortality rate of COVID-19 vary greatly depending on factors like location and the characteristics of a population. Mortality rates for COVID-19 have been estimated to range between 0.25 and 3 percent. SARS is much more deadly than COVID-19. The estimated mortality rate is about 10 percent. (Healthline Newsletter).
The reason why SARS become a pandemic in 2003, because of the delay of information of the Chinese government to report this illness in the press and health organization. While the Covid 19 spread rapidly in the different regions because of global travel. In 2020, people in many countries around the world are almost as used to hopping on an international flight. Air travel makes it possible for someone to travel halfway across the globe in less time than it takes for many diseases to incubate, making it extremely difficult to prevent their spread. A WHO report this year on nurses showed that the constant migration of nurses from low- and middle-income countries to high-income countries has left many nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America with too few nurses and other health workers to adequately care for their populations. Without nurses and other key workers, health systems will be vulnerable to the increasing threat of disease outbreaks. We will notice that China is the originated place of these two pandemics SARS and Covid 19, SARS transmitted to a total of 30 territories excluding mainland China and Hong Kong is the most affected region by the SARS. 219 countries around the world have reported for the Covid 19 and the United States is the most affected. During the 2003 global SARS outbreak, patients in the United States were isolated until they were no longer infectious. This practice allowed patients to receive appropriate care, and it helped contain the spread of the illness. Seriously ill patients were cared for in hospitals. Persons with mild illness were cared for at home. Persons being cared for at home were asked to avoid contact with other people and to remain at home until 10 days after the resolution of fever, provided respiratory symptoms were absent or improving. Wearing a mask is a must during this time of Covid 19 in public, and staying at least 6 feet apart from another person to stop the spread of the virus. Washing hands should be often or use alcohol if water and soap are not available. Cleaning and disinfection should be done daily and get vaccinated to protect against Covid 19. Quarantine, one of the most important protocols to avoid the Covid 19 it is used to keep someone who might have been exposed to COVID-19 away from others. Quarantine helps prevent the spread of disease that can occur before a person knows they are sick or if they are infected with the virus without feeling symptoms. People in quarantine should stay home, separate themselves from others, monitor their health, and follow directions from their state or local health department.
The SARS pandemic was short-lived. Only eight months separated the first reported case (November 2002) to the end of the crisis in July 2003. In contrast, COVID-19 may be around for years. As of 2020, there is no cure or protective vaccine for SARS that is both safe and effective in humans. According to research papers published in 2005 and 2006, the identification and development of novel vaccines and medicines to treat SARS was a priority for governments and public health agencies around the world. In early 2004, an early clinical trial on volunteers was planned. A major researcher’s 2016 request, however, demonstrated that no field-ready SARS vaccine had been completed because likely market-driven priorities had ended funding. As of 18 February 2021, at least seven different vaccines across three platforms have been rolled out in countries. Vulnerable populations in all countries are the highest priority for vaccination.
At the same time, more than 200 additional vaccine candidates are in development, of which more than 60 are in clinical development. COVAX is part of the ACT Accelerator, which WHO launched with partners in 2020.