SARS CoV-2. The New Pandemic: Review of Present Literature

Abstract

A novel Corona virus discovered during a pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan city, China has raised a global public health concern. This virus spread across the world affecting various countries and was declared a pandemic by World Health Organization(WHO). The outbreak started in December 2019 and by first week of April 2020, 212 countries were affected with more than 1million confirmed cases with a death roll of 79,235 worldwide. This disease was named as COVID-19 and the causative agent was named as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus -2 (SARS-CoV-2) due to its genetic similarity with SARS virus. SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted by respiratory droplets and by contact. Clinical symptoms include high fever, sore throat, cough, breathlessness, progress to pneumonia, acute respiratory distress and multisystem dysfunction. Infectivity rate is high with SARSCoV2 , as a result many countries are affected. Control measures like are quarantine, lockdown, regular handwashing, social distancing have been indicated by WHO and being followed by various countries. Due unavailability of an effective vaccine and specific antiviral medication against the virus, only symptomatic treatment along with the isolation of the patient is being done