COVID-19 diagnosis & treatment avenues

This coronavirus outbreak might be the first public health threat that has seen the largely rhetorical 5G remote diagnosis being used

- THIRUNAVUKARASU KATHIRVEL

Viral outbreaks are not new; we have faced SARS, MERS, Nipah, Zika and several other viral outbreaks in the recent past. However, none has made the world stand still as COVID-19 has. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared this outbreak a pandemic due to its high transmission rate. The number of cases and deaths continues to rise as it has spread to over 200 countries, making it a global concern. A drug or vaccine that will help end this pandemic is needed.

COVID-19 was identified by pneumonia causalities at Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. Though early cases were linked to a wet market in the Hubei Province, it is now understood that the virus spread through human-to-human transmission via droplets or direct contact; the infection is estimated to have a mean incubation period of 6.4 days and a basic reproduction number of 2.24–3.58. The major symptoms recorded in COVID-19 infected causalities include fever, cough, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and kidney failure.

COVID-19 is a beta coronavirus, similar to the human coronaviruses SARS and MERS. With this novel outbreak, there are now seven different strains of human coronaviruses (HCoVs): the 229E and the NL63 strains of HCoVs (alpha coronaviruses), OC43, HKU1, SARS, MERS, and COVID-19 HCoVs (beta coronaviruses). As the world braces to fight the global pandemic through social distancing and country-wide lockdown, here’s a snapshot of advances in healthcare technologies that will help transform human lives affected by COVID-19:

Potential COVID-19 treatment avenues