Covid: An Apocalypse?

The spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is becoming unstoppable and has already reached the necessary epidemiological criteria for it to be declared a pandemic.

How many people have been affected?

   

We’re only 3 months into a new year and it has been anunmitigated disaster thus far. When the Coronavirus scare began, no one assumedit would bring the world to its knees.

As of 23 March, more than 341,000 people have been infectedin more than 150 countries. There have been over 14,700 deaths globally. Justover 3,000 of those deaths have occurred in mainland China, where thecoronavirus was first recorded in the city of Wuhan. Italy has been hardesthit, though, with over 5,476 fatalities. Many of those who have died hadunderlying health conditions, which the coronavirus complicated.India reportingits first novel Coronavirus case on January 30 this year, has seen a steadyincrease in number of Covid-19 infections. The number of cases has now gone to415. Maharashtra has maximum number of Coronavirus cases followed by Kerala. UTof Jammu and Kashmir has 4 cases so far .

The virus

Coronaviruses (CoV), so named for their “crown-like”appearance, are a large family of RNA viruses that spread from animals tohumans and include diseases like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) andSevere Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

COVID-19 is a zoonotic virus. Since the COVID-19 virus has agenome identity of 96% to a bat SARS-like coronavirus and 86%-92% to a pangolinSARS-like coronavirus, an animal source for COVID-19 is highly likely. This wascorroborated by the high number of RT-PCR positive environmental samples takenfrom the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China.

 “In a way, we arefacilitating the transmission of the virus from animals to humans.” The irrationaldestruction of forests and wildlife habitats have meant that man is coming intoclose contact with animals and viruses themselves are constantly mutating tosurvive. One wonders if man will learn anything from this.

Incubation Period

Time from exposure to the virus to development of symptoms.2 to 5 days, in some cases up to 14 days .

Transmission

COVID-19 is transmitted via droplets and fomites duringclose unprotected contact between an infector and infectee. Human-to-humantransmission of the COVID-19 virus is largely occurring in families and amongHealth care workers.

Why Quarantine?

Quarantine is derived from an Italian word meaning 40 days,during the Plague epidemic any ship that came to Italy remained docked in for40 days. Since, this is a novel virus, all of us are susceptible to it and havenot developed immunity for the same .

We constantly see reports of people evading checking at airports, patients escaping quarantine and people brazenly partying despite requests not to do so. This is just plain folly. Even though the mortality rate is 3 to 5%. 3% of 1,000 people seems small but 3% of 200,000 is massive.

Even if you’re young and you get infected, you will probably survive but you might need to be hospitalized if your symptoms worsen. There are already people whose immunity is low – people like organ transplant recipients, patients with serious illnesses like cancer and the elderly. If you don’t take care, the hospital will be forced to choose between which people to save, which is what is happening in Italy.

Differentiating  Clinical Features

Nature is trying to tell us something but we are simply notlistening ….

Since 2000, have had 3 outbreaks – SARS, MERS and Ebola. Onewould have thought that the lessons from these outbreaks would have taught ussomething .No one knows what the future holds. While the hope is that this willbe contained in a few months, the fall out has already begun and it iscatastrophic to say the least.

Till then, we can do our bit by adhering to the preventionand control measures  by adopting

 •    Infection prevention and control  measures in various health care settings

•             Effectivenessof entry and exit screening

•             Effectivenessof the public health control measures and their socio-economic impact by

•             Restrictionof movement

•             Socialdistancing

•             Schooland workplace closures

•             Wearingmask in general public

•             Mandatoryquarantine

•             Voluntaryquarantine with active surveillance

•             HandHygiene

It is a social responsibility to prevent its spread. Bybeing alert, you may be saving your own grandparents and other senior citizenswho are vulnerable to death from COVID. Facing the pandemic, is not whathappened matters, it is how we respond. Request all  to –

             Declareif you are having fever /cough. Take 15 days leave.

             Donot hide travel details

             Avoidall gatherings (functions, meetings, prayers, markets)

             Canceltrips

             Istill see people coughing and sneezing. You may be a having a mild form.And you may be well to go around with COVID. Please cover your face whencoughing /sneezing with tissues and dispose them in a closed bin.

PS: In times like these, it’s imperative that you get your information from the right sources like the WHO website and not encourage rumors. “A pandemic will lead to permanent social, economic, and cultural changes. The key is to create good from a bad situation.”

dr.ilhamiqbal@yahoo.com

Dr. Ilham Iqbal is Consulting Doctor at Help Saba Cancer Charitable Trust.

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