covid-19 history in detail?
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Corona virus
A novel coronavirus outbreak was first documented in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China in December 2019. As of this writing, it has now been confirmed on six continents and in more than 100 countries. As the world’s health systems funnel resources into learning about, treating, and preventing infections in humans, new information is released daily. In this two-part article series, we will first provide some history on coronaviruses to put this disease outbreak in perspective, and discuss global health security and planning for pandemic response. Secondly, we will offer guidance from the best trusted sources for prevention and planning in the workplace and at home.
What are coronaviruses?
Coronaviruses are a large family of zoonotic viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to severe respiratory diseases. Zoonotic means these viruses are able to be transmitted from animals to humans. There are several coronaviruses known to be circulating in different animal populations that have not yet infected humans. COVID-19 is the most recent to make the jump to human infection.
Common signs of COVID-19 infection are similar to the common cold and include respiratory symptoms such as dry cough, fever, shortness of breath, and breathing difficulties. In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and death.
The COVID-19 infection is spread from one person to others via droplets produced from the respiratory system of infected people, often during coughing or sneezing. According to current data, time from exposure to onset of symptoms is usually between two and 14 days, with an average of five days.
Recent coronavirus outbreak history
Two other recent coronavirus outbreaks have been experienced. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) of 2012 was found to transmit from dromedary camels to humans. In 2002, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV) was found to transmit from civet cats to humans.
Although COVID-19 has already shown some similarities to recent coronavirus outbreaks, there are differences and we will learn much more as we deal with this one. SARS cases totaled 8,098 with a fatality rate of 11 percent as reported in 17 countries, with the majority of cases occurring in southern mainland China and Hong Kong. The fatality rate was highly dependent on the age of the patient with those under 24 least likely to die (one percent) and those over 65 most likely to die (55 percent). No cases have been reported worldwide since 2004.2
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of 2020, MERS cases total more than 2,500, have been reported in 21 countries, and resulted in about 860 deaths.3 The fatality rate may be much lower as those with mild symptoms are most likely undiagnosed. Only two cases have been confirmed in the United States, both in May of 2014 and both patients had recently traveled to Saudi Arabia. Most cases have occurred in the Arabian Peninsula. It is still unclear how the virus is transmitted from camels to humans. Its spread is uncommon outside of hospitals. Thus, its risk to the global population is currently deemed to be fairly low.