[Epidemiological aspects, clinic and control mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: Situation in Spain]

Abstract

In January 2020, the Chinese authorities confirmed the causative agent of an outbreak of cases with pneumonia of unknown etiology that appeared in December 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) called SARS-CoV-2 is a new virus of the coronavirus family. On March 12, the WHO declared this outbreak as a pandemic as it spread worldwide. Human epidemics usually follow the start of exponential growth, this means that from a small number of cases in a few days, a large increase in the number of infected people is observed. The clinical manifestations and spectrum of symptomatic disease range from moderate to critical presentations. In cases with fatal progression, the most serious complications sometimes are cause of a multi-organ failure and patient death. SARS-CoV-2 has a high transmission rate, the route of transmission between humans is through the secretions of infected people, hands or contaminated objects. In general, the epidemic control measures used so far have been based on adoption of interventions from the classical epidemiology, identifying and isolating the cases, following the contacts and establishing restrictions, including quarantine, closure of educational centers, avoiding events in which crowds of people occur, limiting mobility. These measures have been effective in China, the original focus of the outbreak.

Keywords: COVID-19; Epidemic; Epidemiology; Pandemic; Public health; SARS-CoV-2.

Figura 1

Modelo SIR (susceptible, infectado y recuperado) para una población de 1.000 individuos durante un período de observación de 100 días.

Figura 2

Gráficos simulados que representan un crecimiento lineal y un crecimiento exponencial.

Figura 3

Tasa de mortalidad por millón de habitantes a nivel internacional (a fecha 27 de marzo del 2020). Fuente: Databrew.

Figura 4

Representación de la trayectoria de la infección por SARS-CoV-2 en diversos países del mundo. Fuente: Bhatia.