The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: A review and an update on cases in Africa

• Published in: Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Medicine
• Main Author: AbdulAzeez A Anjorin
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2020
• Subjects: coronavirus; covid-19; sars-cov-2; infectious disease; africa; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.4103/1995-7645.281612; https://doaj.org/article/f4471bd686a7487a91eead9e0f14ae03

The world has experienced several epidemics posing serious threat to global public health, including the 2002 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic that caused 800 deaths out of about 8 000 cases, the 2009 H1N1 pandemic with 18 500 deaths, the 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) epidemic that caused 800 deaths out of 2 500 cases, the 2014 Ebola outbreak with 28 616 cases and 11 310 deaths, and the current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic with more than 35 000 deaths out of over 730 000 confirmed cases till now. Emerging infectious diseases continue to infect and reduce human populations. The COVID-19 pandemic has spread to more than 114 countries before it was officially declared as a pandemic by the WHO on the 11th March 2020. Here, the first set of index cases in Africa, and the differences between SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses in addition to the preventive strategies on the emergence of COVID-19 were reviewed.