COVID-19-A PANDEMIC IN NEED OF CONTROL

Abstract

The recent ‘show stopper’ in the world of infectious diseases is the Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) which is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). This infection, which presents itself with a risk of morbidity and mortality, has managed to shake the medical fraternity. This can be called the sister disease to the previously known severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). The 2019- nCoV was first identified in late December 2019, in Wuhan, China and henceforth spread to multiple countries. The health care specialists were rushed in order to find a perfect diagnosis, treatment algorithm and prevention measures for such an unexpected pandemic. Monitoring the transmission trends in humans, understanding mechanism of infection, developing novel tests for detection of the virus with diagnostic guidelines, initiating clinical testing of activity of drugs to be used as potential treatment options as well as providing epidemiological isolation guidelines were some measures adopted by various nations, and are briefly addressed in this article. Apart from patients being treated, a matter of worry has been the risk the healthcare workers are facing, as they are vulnerable to becoming vectors or hosts of the viral infection. Hence, the minimal prescribed precautions those are obligatory for the professionals to be followed, alongside the general preventive measures have also been reviewed in this article.