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COVID-19 outbreak: Be prepared but don’t panic

7 April 2020

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By: Abu Imran Baba

A few months ago, an apocalyptic emergence of a virus took a heavy toll, infecting more than one million people now globally, as based on the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University.

This virus named as COVID-19 by the World Health Organization (WHO) has generated a reign of fear and panic among a lot of people around the world. The increased media hype and the spread of some information has taken it on a high level, making people to be in more kinds of paranoid type of state. To a level the anxiety and the media outrage can be justified to some extent for this virus infection as we already know the severity and its consequences yet because of it’s no possible treatment.

With its first emergence from a city of Wuhan in China, which was its main epicentre initially to a recent global pandemic, it has shaken the world health community with its fast rate of spreading. The virus has no possible vaccine against it at the moment and generating one may take a year or more if everything goes well and the scientific community acts on it at a faster pace.

The main transmission route of this virus is through coming in the direct or indirect contact with the mucus droplets from an already infected person. The symptoms are very much in similarity with the common flu. Visible symptoms may involve the constant coughing, sore throat and shortness of breath in advance stages. The constant coughing, sneezing and also indirect spread of mucus particles from the infected person by touching the surfaces will pave way for the virus in spreading it to others. So a constant self isolation will play a very important role in limiting of spreading it to others.

A vivid and precautionary approach to it is quite exemplary to decrease its pace of spreading among the people of different ages. In fact the virus can infect the people of every age, but the harsh consequences and increased fatality have been observed at higher levels among the elderly and the immunocompromised individuals such as patients undergoing the treatment from certain anti-cancer chemotherapeutic, AIDS (HIV) drugs and also other diseases.

Various research laboratories around the world have already started to get into the novel developments of the structural and the genetic basis of this virus. Recent genetic and structural analyses have led to the identification of a specific protein on its surface which might explain why it infects human cells at a rapid rate. Particular scientific inputs have led to expose certain important details about this virus and its route of infection. These first developments can be collected together to find a novel treatment towards this viral infection. The scientific community around the world is optimistic about the further developments for this virus in a particular course of coming months that will be crucial for its vaccine development.

At the moment the precautionary measure against the virus will be need of the hour. Care should be taken to minimize to a larger extent going outdoors unnecessary and maintaining social distance will play a pivotal role. Use of frequent hand sanitizer or hand washing with the soap will limit the spread of a virus with contacts to infected surfaces.

A person experiencing the flu-like symptoms should wear a mask to cover his face and self quarantine in case of these visible symptoms. A medical care is needed if the condition persists and asking for medical supervision by a phone call is better and not visiting the hospital in non lethal conditions, so to minimise the spread of the virus to others. Elderly and immunocompromised people should at any cost stay indoors because of being highly vulnerable to its fatality. So acting on it at the moment with precautionary measures rather than panicking will definitely let us to have a control on its transmission and lethality.

So let’s pledge to stay calm and wait for the best as this time will pass soon.

(Abu Imran Baba is currently based at Biological Research Centre, Szeged Hungary) email: [email protected]