Review on Corona Virus (Covid-19).

Review on Corona Virus (Covid-19).

This is the new health crisis in the world that is threatening in its emergence and its spread of covid-19. It is a syndrome of severe acute respiratory coronavirus. It is assumed to have originated from the bats and was passed to humans through unknown means in the densely populated city of Wuhan in China in 2019, December. Today there have been more than 200,000 reported cases in the world and more than 4,000 deaths that have been reported. The disease is transmitted through contact or inhalation of infected droplets, and it has an incubation period that ranges between two to fourteen days before the first signs are shown. The systems are cough, sore throat, fever, fatigue, breathlessness, and malaise.

This ailment can be mild in some other people, especially those with respiratory diseases or older people because they have the weakest immune system. The disease progresses to multi-organ dysfunction, pneumonia, and acute respiratory distress syndrome. The fatality rate has been estimated at 2.5%. They are diagnosed with special molecular tests of respiratory secretions. Low or healthy white blood cells are characteristic laboratory findings with elevated reactive protein type C.  There is a chest scan using a computerized tomographic, which is abnormal for those with mild or no symptoms.

The virus is about 60nm to 140nm in its diameter and has spike-like projects that are on its surface, and when seen under the electron microscope, it appears like a crown. The virus is in the circulation of four types in human beings, namely OC43, 229E, NL63, and HKU1, and causes mild respiratory ailments.

Over the past two decades, the crossover of beta coronavirus has been witnessed, and it resulted in severe ailment. The first case was between 2002-03, and there was a new coronavirus, which originated from the bats, which was passed o to humans through an intermediary host of cats. This affected 8422 people in Hong gong and china and caused 916 deaths before it was contained. At around 2012, there was an outbreak of MERS-CoV, which was from the bats again and affected 2494 people and claimed the lives of 858 people.

The first case of covid-19 was reported in Wuhan in 2019 by adults, which is the primary transportation hub in the country of China. They had severe pneumonia of unknown cases (Wu, 2019). The first cases had exposure to the market of the Huanan wholesale seafood market that dealt with live animals. Samples for the patients were sent to the labs for investigation against etiologic checks. China, in December 2019, notified the world health organization of an outbreak, and the market of Huanan was closed in January. The virus was identified on January 7 as the coronavirus and had similarities with the bat’s coronavirus. The tests done on the environmental samples found in the Huanan seafood market were found to be positive, and it signaled that it was the place of origin.

From that point, the number of cases started increasing, and even those who did not come in contact with the seafood began testing positive for the covid-19, which suggested that the diseases were transmitted from human to human connection. The new year eve, which saw many Chinese make a lot of migration fueled the spread of covid-19 to other countries that included Japan, South Korea, and Japan. There was also transmission from the patients to the healthcare assistants who were looking out for the patients on around January 20, 2020. The people living in Wuhan were placed under lockdown on January 23 of about 11 million people. They were restricted against any exit or entry from that region of Wuhan.  The lockdown was later extended to other provinces, such as Huaibei.

Those cases that were reported outside china were due to transmission from contacts with contaminated persons. This led to several airports being put in screening to detect those people with symptoms, especially those that were returning from China. Those people were placed on isolation for about one day to avoid the spread of covid-19, and they are tested for the virus to know their status.

There were increased cases and the epidemic doubling, this forced china to change the definition of those confirmed cases, and they included those that are negative but showing signs of the virus with their pending cases put under molecular tests. By doing this, there was a rise to 15,000 cases of covid-19 in a single day of February 12, 2020. By March 3, there were 96,000 reported cases worldwide with 80,000 from china.

Notably, as the number of new cases drops in china, other countries and continents are increasing. Due to the limitations of the testing and surveillance, the name was possibly underestimated by the dead and infected persons. Snakes and Pangolins are the currents suspects from the spread, even though SARs-CoV-2 was from the bats (Lee, 2008).

All the ages are the victims of the covid-19, and the infection is generally transmitted through droplets from sneezing or coughing by an already infected person. There is a higher virus load in the nasal cavity according to research than from the throat. Even after clinical recovery, patients can affect the same way so long as the symptoms last. The infected samples spread at a distance of 1-2m, then deposits itself on the surface or ground. The virus remains there for a couple of days when the favorable environmental conditions suit them but are destroyed by disinfectants within a minute. The infections are acquired through touching of surfaces that are contaminated or inhaling the droplets, and then you touch your mouth, eyes, or nose. The virus also is present in contaminated water supply and stool.

The suspected case through diagnosis is a person that has a cough, sore throat, and fever and has travel history to or from China and other parts that has been hit by this pandemic or that have been in contact with a patient that has tested positive for the virus. A confirmed case in the one that, through the molecular test, the result has come out, and they have tested positive for covid-19. They test specific respiratory samples from the sputum, throat swab, nasopharyngeal swab, bronchoalgeal swab, and endotracheal aspirates. The virus also may be detected in samples of stool or blood samples. There are no commercial tests for covid-19 currently. The chest x-ray show typical early signs through bilateral infiltrates, and this is more specific and sensitive. The CT shows the subsegmental consolidation, infiltrated, and ground-glass opacities.

The treatment for covid-19 included the first step is to isolate the patient and those who have been in contact with for the last 14 days to prevent transmission to other healthcare workers, patients, and other contacts. There should be the maintenance of nutrition and hydration for cough and fever. The use of antivirals and antibiotics, such as oseltamivir, should not be administered to patients confirmed to be positive. Provision of oxygen to hypoxic patients through a facemask, nasal prongs, non-invasive ventilation, and high flow nasal cannula should be indicated. The use of antifungals and antibiotics of cases of co-infections can be administered.

Prevention of covid-19 is better than treatment since there is no approved cure for the disease. The suspected and confirmed cases should be isolated at home or in a recommended area. Ventilation in those places should be good with enough sunlight, which destroys the virus. The patients should wear the surgical masks that prevent the spread of the virus to the surface and practice hygienic coughing. The caregivers should wear a surgical mask in order not to get infected. The health workers are at a significant risk hence should wear the face masks when helping the patients. The rooms of the patients should remain under decontamination and disinfection regularly.  Patients should be placed in different rooms to avoid reinfection.

At the community level, people should avoid gatherings and crowds. They should be taken through lessons of hygienic coughing and washing of hand through disinfectants and avoid body contacts. Patients that have respiratory problems should wear surgical masks

The outbreak of covid-19 is a challenge to the medical, economic, and health infrastructure of the whole world. With time we will be able to tell how this pandemic will impact on our lives. When we can contain this virus, efforts should be made to prevent any future outbreaks of these kinds.

References.

Lee, J. D. (2008). SARS and illness narratives: an examination of an epidemic (Doctoral dissertation, Memorial University of Newfoundland).

Wu, Z., & McGoogan, J. M. (2020). Characteristics of and important lessons from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in China: summary of a report of 72 314 cases from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Jama.