What is an epidemic?

●An epidemic is the rapid spread of a disease through

a population in a relatively short amount of time.

Source: Epidemic page on wikipedia.org,

accessed 3/14/2020.
What is a pandemic?
●A pandemic is an epidemic that has spread
over a large region of the world.

●For example, the Spanish flu of 1918-1920

infected 500 million people (about ¼ of the
Earth’s population at that time) and killed
an estimated 50 million people.

●Before 2020, the most recent pandemic Hospital patients with the Spanish flu, 1919
was the 2009 H1N1 swine flu. It infected
about 10-20% of the world’s population
and killed 150,000-500,000 people.
What is the current pandemic?
●December 2019: a novel (new) coronavirus was identified in Wuhan, China.

●This virus has since been named

SARS-CoV-2
for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.
[It was previously called 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).]
SARS-CoV-2
●The disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 is called
COVID-19
●March 11, 2020: After the disease caused by this coronavirus spread to 114
countries, the World Health Organization declared it to be a pandemic likely
to spread across the globe.
What is a coronavirus?
● Coronaviruses are a group
of viruses that cause
several diseases in
mammals and birds.
● In humans, human
coronavirus (HCV) causes
respiratory infections that
are usually mild, including
some cases of the common
cold. Computer-generated model
Source: Coronavirus page on Wikipedia.org, accessed 3/14/2020
What is COVID-19?
●SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that
appeared in 2019, causes an acute respiratory
disease called coronavirus disease 2019
(COVID-19 for short).

●The disease is believed to have originated

through animal-to-human transmission but soon SARS virus

began to spread via human-to-human

transmission.

●COVID-19 is related to the previously known

diseases SARS and MERS which are caused by
different, but related, viruses. MERS virus
What are the symptoms?
● Fever
● Fatigue
● Respiratory symptoms:
○ dry cough
○ shortness of breath
○ can lead to pneumonia
● Symptoms typically appear 2-14 days (average: 5-6
days) after exposure.
● However, many people may be infected but show no
symptoms.
How is COVID-19 diagnosed?
● Antigen tests:
● These tests confirm viral exposure
in the recent past.

● They do not test for the virus

directly.

● These tests typically involve a nasal A PCR machine

or throat swab, or a saliva test

What are the treatments?
● There is no vaccine. Work is underway to develop
one, but a vaccine is unlikely to be developed before
2021.
● There is no anti-viral treatment specifically for
COVID-19.

● Symptoms are managed using standard methods of

care for viral infections.

●Antibiotics, which only treat bacterial infections, are

not useful to treat COVID-19 or other viral diseases.