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Face Masks and Hand Sanitizers
Published in Hanadi Talal Ahmedah, Muhammad Riaz, Sagheer Ahmed, Marius Alexandru Moga, The Covid-19 Pandemic, 2023
Shahzad Sharif, Mahnoor Zahid, Maham Saeed, Izaz Ahmad, M. Zia-Ul-Haq, Rizwan Ahmad
COVID-19 pandemic began in the Chinese city “Wuhan” as the number of cases were reported at the end of December 2019 [1]. COVID-19 is a disease like pneumonia occurs because of SARS-COV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) infection. The disease has similarity with Severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East Respiratory disease, also known as MERS [2]. As the spreading risk of coronavirus enhanced in China, WHO announced a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on 30-01-2020. In the announcement, WHO reported about 170 deaths due to viral disease which was later named “COVID-19.” As the COVID-19 spread continued, WHO referred to it a “Pandemic” [3].
SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19
Published in Patricia G. Melloy, Viruses and Society, 2023
Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (MERS) was first described in humans in 2012. This virus also came from bats, with camels being an intermediate vector. So far, cases have been largely confined to the Middle East (mainly Saudi Arabia) or people who traveled there. The symptoms of MERS are very similar to SARS and COVID-19, but it has a higher case fatality rate (Christakis 2020; Abdelrahman, Li, and Wang 2020). As of the beginning of 2020, there were 2,519 cases of MERS resulting in 866 fatalities (Abdelrahman, Li, and Wang 2020).
Coronavirus Epidemics and the Current COVID-19 Pandemic
Published in Debmalya Barh, Kenneth Lundstrom, COVID-19, 2022
Aparna Bhardwaj, Prateek Kumar, Shivani Krishna Kapuganti, Vladimir N. Uversky, Rajanish Giri
SARS-CoV was the first HCoV to break the host species barrier, spreading to humans from the Chinese horseshoe bat in 2002 [29]. MERS-CoV is the second known HCoV of zoonotic origin, in which camels served as the intermediate hosts for the spread of the disease [30]. SARS-CoV-2 is the third HCoV spreading to humans and causing a pandemic [4, 5]. Apart from human CoVs, HKU2-related CoV is of animal origin, which also crossed the species barrier and infected pigs in China, first reported in October 2016 [31]. It was responsible for the outbreak of swine disease in pig farms of Qingyuan, Guangdong province, China. This Swine Acute Diarrhea Syndrome-Coronavirus (SADS-CoV) is responsible for the death of 24,693 pigs [31]. It shares 98% similarity with the CoV isolated from the horseshoe bat [31]. In this chapter, we shall discuss the three recent human CoV outbreaks, among the seven HCoVs identified since the year 2000 (Table 1.1).
Phytonutrient Inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2/NSP5-Encoded Main Protease (Mpro) Autocleavage Enzyme Critical for COVID-19 Pathogenesis
Published in Journal of Dietary Supplements, 2023
Sreus A. G. Naidu, Yamini B. Tripathi, Priya Shree, Roger A. Clemens, A. Satyanarayan Naidu
Coronaviruses (CoVs) are a large family of enveloped viruses with a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome (about 26 to 32 kilobases) and a nucleocapsid with helical symmetry (1). Generally, CoVs are zoonotic pathogens that cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses, like the common cold. However, three new CoVs emerged from animal reservoirs over the past two decades have inflicted severe morbidity and mortality in human populations worldwide. The SARS-CoV emerged in November 2002 has caused severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and disappeared by 2004 (2). The MERS-CoV transmitted from camel reservoir caused Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in September 2012, which continues to wreak sporadic and localized outbreaks (3). Emergence of the third novel SARS-CoV-2 from China in December 2019 has manifested into Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020 (4).
The lessons of COVID-19, SARS, and MERS: Implications for preventive strategies
Published in International Journal of Healthcare Management, 2022
Yuliya Semenova, Varvara Trenina, Lyudmila Pivina, Natalya Glushkova, Yersin Zhunussov, Erlan Ospanov, Geir Bjørklund
As for MERS-CoV, dromedary camels from Oman and the Canary Islands have high concentrations of MERS-CoV-neutralizing antibodies [22]. Besides, MERS-CoV RNA was isolated from swabs obtained from camels in Qatar, while the pathogenic virus was identified in camels from Saudi Arabia and Qatar [23]. In general, MERS-CoV-like viruses are long-circulating among dromedary camels in the Middle East, Eastern, and Northern Africa [24]. Although these animals show predominantly mild signs of infection, the virus effectively spreads among the dromedary camel population. So, there is no doubt that dromedary camels from the Middle East are a natural reservoir of MERS-CoV. Because infected camels are kept by people, there is a continuing zoonotic transmission [25], which explains episodic outbreaks of MERS-CoV.
Corticosteroids in SARS-COV2 infection: certainties and uncertainties in clinical practice
Published in Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy, 2021
Radu Crisan Dabija, Ileana Antohe, Antigona Trofor, Sabina A Antoniu
Middle East Respiratory (COVID) syndrome (MERS-COV) was diagnosed for the first time in early 2010 in Saudi Arabia, the first case presenting with pneumonia, respiratory and with multiple organ failures [27]. Local outbreaks of MERS-COV with mainly human to human in health care settings and secondarily dromedary camels to human were subsequently reported [28]. Among the risk factors for severe forms of diseases manifesting with respiratory failure or with acute distress respiratory syndrome (ARDS) identified were older age, presence of comorbidities such as cardiovascular diseases, obesity, chronic respiratory diseases, kidney failures, cancer or therapeutic immunosuppression [28]. The virus isolated in these cases was represented by a betacoronavirus of C phylogeneic lineage which uses the spike glycoprotein as the main agent to infect the host cells [28].