COVID-19, a worldwide public health emergency

Abstract

A new coronavirus outbreak emerged on the 31st of December 2019 in Wuhan, China, causing commotion among the medical community and the rest of the world. This new species of coronavirus has been termed 2019-nCoV and has caused a considerable number of cases of infection and deaths in China and, to a growing degree, beyond China, becoming a worldwide public health emergency. 2019-nCoV has high homology to other pathogenic coronaviruses, such as those originating from bat-related zoonosis (SARS-CoV), which caused approximately 646 deaths in China at the start of the decade. The mortality rate for 2019-nCoV is not as high (approximately 2-3%), but its rapid propagation has resulted in the activation of protocols to stop its spread. This pathogen has the potential to become a pandemic. It is therefore vital to follow the personal care recommendations issued by the World Health Organization.

Keywords: Basic reproduction number; Clinical condition; Coronavirus; Cuadro clínico; Diagnosis; Diagnóstico; Número de reproducción básico; Prevención; Prevention; Transmisión; Transmission.

Figure 1

(A) Coronavirus particle. This type of virus contains positive-polarity single-strand RNA [(+)ssRNA] genetic material, measuring 27–32 kilobases. The virus consists of a nucleocapsid, which in turn is composed of (+)ssRNA and the nucleoprotein. This structure is covered by a lipid bilayer. Other structural proteins of the coronavirus are found here, such as the spike protein, which covers this virus particle, as well as hemagglutinin-esterase (HE) dimers, the highly hydrophobic envelope (E) protein and the membrane (M) protein, the most abundant protein on the virion's surface. (B) Organization of the genes in the 2019-nCoV genome. The structural genes are shown in pink, and the nonstructural genes are shown in blue.

Figure 2

Propagation of 2019-nCoV. There are various hypotheses regarding the virus’ animal-to-human transmission, the strongest of which is the bat origin. Human-to-human transmission has been reported to occur through the respiratory tract, thereby facilitating infection between populations. The symptoms are very common, with fever, cough, muscle pain and respiratory problems, among others.