-By Ibrahim Suleiman PhD
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), viral diseases continue to emerge and they present a serious public health concern. In the last twenty years, several viral epidemics such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) from 2002 to 2003, H1N1 influenza in 2009 and the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in 2012 have been recorded. Most recently, an epidemic of cases detected in Wuhan, the largest metropolitan area in China’s Hubei province, was first reported to the WHO Country Office in China, on December 31, 2019. However, it has been shown that 29 symptomatic cases can be traced back to the beginning of December 2019. Nonetheless, the causative agent remained unknown as of then, thus these first 29 cases were classified as “pneumonia of unknown aetiology.” The aetiology of this illness was attributed to a novel virus belonging to the coronavirus (CoV) family. The virus itself was initially termed 2019-nCoV.
Subsequently, the task of experts of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) termed it the SARS-CoV-2 virus as it is very similar to the one that caused the SARS outbreak (SARS-CoVs).
On February 11, 2020, the WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced that the disease caused by this novel coronavirus was a “COVID-19,” which is the acronym of “coronavirus disease 2019”. In the past twenty years, two additional CoVs epidemics have occurred, namely; the SARS-CoV (which provoked a large-scale epidemic beginning in China and involving two dozen countries with approximately 8000 cases and 9.6% fatality rate) and the MERS-CoV (which began in Saudi Arabia with approximately 2,500 cases and 35% fatality rate). Unlike these two, COVID-19 is very contagious and has quickly spread globally. In a meeting on January 30, 2020, the outbreak was declared by the WHO a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) as it had spread to 18 countries with four countries reporting human-to-human transmission.
An additional landmark occurred on February 27, 2020, as the first case of the disease, not imported from China, was recorded in Nigeria.
The Coronaviruses have become the major pathogens of emerging respiratory disease outbreaks. They can be isolated from different animal species. For reasons yet to be explained, these viruses can cross species barriers and can cause, in humans, illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as MERS and SARS.
Interestingly, these latter viruses have probably originated from bats and then moving into other mammalian hosts — the Himalayan palm civet for SARS-CoV, and the dromedary camel for MERS-CoV — before jumping to humans. The dynamics of SARS-Cov-2 has remained unknown, but there is speculation that it also has an animal origin. Many uncertainties remain with regard to both the virus-host interaction and the evolution of the pandemic.
At the moment, the therapeutic strategies to deal with the infection are only supportive, and prevention aimed at reducing transmission in the community is our best weapon. Aggressive isolation measures in China have led to a progressive reduction of cases. From China, the disease spread to Europe. In Italy, in geographic regions of the north, initially, and subsequently throughout the peninsula, political and health authorities have made incredible efforts to contain a shock wave that has severely tested the health system. It is believed that the disease entered into Nigeria from Europe. Afterwards, the COVID-19 quickly crossed the ocean and as of August 24, 2020, about 52,600 cases (with slightly over 1000 deaths) have been recorded in Nigeria, whereas the United States has more than 5,720,000 cases and about 177,000 deaths. Although over time the lethality rate (total number of deaths for a given disease in relation to the total number of patients) of COVID-19 has been significantly lower than that of the SARS and MERS epidemics, the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is much larger than that of the previous viruses, with a much higher total number of deaths. It has been estimated that about one in five individuals worldwide could be at increased risk of severe COVID-19 disease if they become infected, due to underlying health conditions.
Since the first outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, the disease is spreading globally. Individuals at the extreme of ages and those that are immunocompromised (weak body defence system) are at higher risk of infection. Healthcare professionals must be fully aware of the precautions necessary to avoid the contraction and spread of the disease. While the provision and continuous usage of personal protective equipment are paramount to limiting the spread of the virus pending the discovery and development effective vaccine.