From Editor’s Desk
Dr. Sabir
Dr. M. Sabir
Editor
ICS, Public Forum
And Indian Chest Society family
Jan 2020
Dear Friends,
Best wishes for a Happy, Healthy & prosperous year 2020.
Start of year 2020 is marked with alarming news of novelCorona virus havoc started from China.
On December 31, 2019 China reported cases of Pneumonia from their Wuhan city associated with seafood. It was diagnosed to be caused by novel Corona virus.
The World Health Organization (WHO) describe coronaviruses as a large family of viruses that can cause illness ranging from the common cold to more serious diseases like mild to severe infections of upper & lower respiratory tract and Pneumonia. The 2019 novel coronavirus, or “2019-nCoV”, is a new strain that has not been identified in humans before.
These organisms are enveloped RNA viruses which are distributed among human, animals as well as birds. Two serious corona viruses have been SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV which were responsible for severe respiratory disease outbreaks in recent past.
As on 13th. Feb. 2020 total 46550 confirmed cases reported from china & 395 cases reported outside China from 24 other countries, with total deaths because of this dreaded infection raised to 1017 in China & one death reported from Philippines.
Despite the continuous efforts by the Chinese authorities to control the Corona virus from spreading is showing no result. Millions of people stuck in their houses and hospitals struggling to accommodate the patients due to lack of beds and medical facilities. According to the authorities, the death toll and those infected might keep increasing.
The new corona virus is highly transmissible, spreads in ways that are not entirely understood and will be difficult to squelch. A single infected “super-spreader” can infect dozens of others. Outbreaks can seem to recede, only to rebound in short order, as the weather or conditions change.
World Health Organization (WHO) has declared it a ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’ (PHEIC).
As per WHO reports common signs of corona virus infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties
It is important to prevent spread of this dreaded infection as till date there is no definite specific antiviral drug and vaccine available against Corona virus.
The disease mostly spread by human to human transmission. Measures like avoiding visiting China for sometime till the havoc is over. We should cooperate & help government agencies in isolating suspected persons coming from China, as many Indian students are perusing their studies at China and many Indian tourist & businessman are visiting China, and this country is our next door nabour.
In addition to avoiding contacts, standard recommendations to prevent the spread of coronavirus, includes regular hand washing, covering the mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, and thoroughly cooking meat and eggs.
Till date three cases (fortunately no death) have been reported from our country.
Please visit useful article on Corona Virus written by senior pulmonologist Dr. Khilnani (recently updated on our web pages) having many useful information about this infection.
With regards
Jai Hind