Understanding COVID-19 – The Pandemic of 2020

Abstract

It all started in December 2019, a seafood market in Wuhan, China, with a series of neumonia alike cases admitted with severe acute respiratory depression. Since they were unable to detect the precise cause, they named it "Pneumonia of unknown etiology". Later it was identified as SARS COV 2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome – coronavirus 2). At first, the disease spread locally affecting the people of Wuhan, and then started spreading throughout China, creating a worldwide panic. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 in China as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from China and local healthcare units organized an intensive outbreak investigation program. The causative organism of this infection is a new virus that belongs to the “coronavirus (CoV)” family. After which the disease was called nCoV-19 (Novel coronavirus – 19). On February 11, 2020, the WHO Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, renamed the disease as "COVID-19," which is the acronym of "coronavirus disease 2019". Viral epidemics like SARS-CoV in 2002, H1N1 influenza in 2009, and the most recent one the MERS-CoV Middle East Respiratory Distress Syndrome Coronavirus (first identified in Saudi Arabia) in 2012 threatened the health of mankind in the past two decades. All of these were successfully prevented by systematically approaching the problem to solve it. Healthcare professionals around the world are well trained to manage any type of health crisis. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19 as a "PANDEMIC" pointing to over 118,000 cases and 80,000 dead in 110 countries or more. In a media briefing, the WHO Director General said: "This is not just a public health crisis, it is a crisis that will touch every sector, so every sector and every individual must be involved in the fight."