Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): World’s Past Experience on Deadly Outbreaks
Temesgen A. Gelaw1, Biniam M. Eskeziaw1, Awoke Y. Dagnaw1, Abeba H. Mariamenatu1, Abreham C. Alemu1, Gebiru S. Wondie1, Meskerem K. Meles21Department of Biotechnology, College of Natural and Computational Science, Debre Birhan University, P O Box445, Debre Birhan, Ethiopia, 2Department of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Science, Wolkite University, P O Box 7, Wolkite, Ethiopia,
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause a wide range of illness from the common cold to more severe diseases (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-MERS and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-SARS). Several known coronaviruses are circulating in animals that have not yet infected humans [1]. Since December 2019, novel coronavirus (COVID-19) disease outbreak caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) [2] stressed billions of peoples around the world. The outbreak was initially originated from Wuhan, Hubei province of China with the specific animal source remaining unknown [3] and spread throughout the world within a short period of time [4]. The World Health Organization (WHO) named it as 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) on 29 December 2019 to refer it affects lower respiratory tract of pneumonia patients [5][6][7]. In recent Coronavirus outbreak history, during its global outbreak in 2002/2003, it have been reported by World Health Organization that catastrophic disease resulted in more than 8400 confirmed cases and 774 mortality [8]. Even though this pandemic has been controlled, there are concerns over the recurrences (http://www.who.int/csr/don/2004_04_23/en/). This new emerging outbreak (COVID-19) is taking superior dissemination and mortality rate over the previous SARS outbreaks. As soon as the outbreak, scientists started to research the source of the new coronavirus, and the research team led by Prof. Yong-Zhen Zhang published the first genome of COVID-19 on 10 January 2020 [9]. With a high level of human mobility among Chinese people (Chinese New Year), the virus spread quickly throughout China within one month and then distributed to other parts of the world.
Cite This Article
Gelaw T, Eskeziaw B, Dagnaw A, Mariamenatu A, Alemu A, Wondie G, et al. Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): World’s Past Experience on Deadly Outbreaks. EJMO. 2020; 4(3): 256-259
Corresponding Author: Temesgen A. Gelaw