Novel coronavirus pandemic: A global health threat
Gulfaraz Khan1
, Mohamud Sheek-Hussein2, Ahmed R Al Suwaidi3, Kamal Idris4, Fikri M Abu-Zidan5
1Department of Microbiolgy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates
2Department of Community Medicine, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates
3Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates
4Department of Critical Care, Al-Ain Hospital, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates
5Department of Surgery, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates
Keywords: Coronavirus, coronavirus 2019, critical care, disaster, emergency, epidemiology, infection control, prevention
Abstract
The world is facing one of its worst public health crises in modern history. Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has shown how fragile our global preparedness for infectious diseases is. The world is a small-connected globe with short travel time between its remote parts. COVID-19 has spread globally and swiftly with major impacts on health, economy, and quality of life of communities. At this point in the time, April 9, 2020, >1,500,000 patients have been infected and >88,000 patients have died worldwide within the last 3 months. The status is evolving and the costly lessons learned over time are increasing. These lessons are global as this virus is. They involve different domains of health sciences including virology, public health, clinical, critical care, and disaster management. This review addresses our current knowledge of COVID-19 pandemic from the basic virology and transmission, through prevention, infection control, clinical management, and finally disaster management including the recovery period. This review has a multidisciplinary approach, which is needed at this time. After this difficult period passes, we have to carry the lessons we learned for the future so that we can be better prepared. One thing that has clearly emerged from this ongoing crisis is that infectious diseases have no borders and we have to work together, using the one world, one health approach, if we are to minimize the enormous impact such pandemics can cause.
How to cite this article: Khan G, Sheek-Hussein M, Al Suwaidi AR, Idris K, Abu-Zidan FM. Novel coronavirus pandemic: A global health threat. Turk J Emerg Med 2020;20:55-62
All authors contributed to the idea. Gulfaraz Khan retrieved the literature on the virology of COVID‐19 and wrote the section on it. Mohamud Sheek‐Hussein retrieved the literature on the public health section and wrote the section on it. Ahmed Al Suwaidi retrieved the literature on the clinical management section and wrote the section on it. Kamal Idris retrieved the literature on critical care management and wrote the section on it. Fikri Abu‐Zidan retrieved the literature on the disaster medicine and wrote the section on it, repeatedly edited the manuscript, and drew the illustrations. All authors read and approved the last version of the paper.
None declared.
None declared.