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The moment of truth about the COVID-19 coronavirus
ROME 02 March 2020 - Until less than 20 years ago, coronaviruses represented a viral family that during the winter period caused 10 to 30% of colds, therefore it was not worth worrying about it. In 2002 the situation changed with the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Sindrom) which in China affected 8 thousand individuals and caused about 10% of mortality with a virus that infected dogs and cats from the bat and then hit humans. After the leopard spots of the MERS (Middle East Respiratory Sindrom) in 2012 in South Arabia and as an epidemic in 2015 in South Korea, camel coronavirus, at the end of 2019 with a particular epicenter at the Huanan city market of the Wuhan metropolis , Hubei's province a new coronavirus appears, then appealed COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019), which after passing into exotic animals pangolin, porcupine infects humans and adapts with greater virulence so as to subsequently establish interhuman infection and the spread of a mysterious pneumonia before its isolation and genetic study, variability from 2 to 12% compared to the original bat coronavirus.
While the history of epidemics repeats itself over the centuries, the basic rules have not changed by isolating the patient and carrying out the quarantine, thus from the Athens typhoid fever of 430 b.c. to the plague of Manzonian memory, 1600 AD to the Spanish of 1918, the flu that claimed more victims than the just ended First World War. In China, the SARS lesson has made it possible to mobilize the population of Wuhan with a delay of almost a month compared to the first cases and the prompt communication to the WHO (World Health Organization) which in itself caught the epidemic by declaring it only a month after the first communication as PHEIC that is Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The photo of President Xi with the face mask and the public declaration of danger showed a delay that cost human lives, despite that early diagnosis by the ophthalmologist Wen Lee who died from this epidemic disease.
The virus appeared controllable and non-aggressive in the infection, providing after 10 days from the communication to the WHO, the viral genome to the American CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) which immediately confirmed the fingerprints of the new coronavirus for the preparation of a diagnostic kit to be used globally for all healthcare institutions and to distinguish this infection from ongoing seasonal flu. Obviously this viral nucleic acid will allow us to know the proteins produced by viral RNA for the synthesis of specific antigens and antiviral drugs. The speech of the vaccine will take time and although stem cell methodologies can be used, 12-18 years will be needed for safe treatment.
Northern Italy, especially Lombardia and Veneto, has been affected by the COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic for a week. Trying to isolate the carriers of the disease in connection with China is not an effective strategy to contain the disease, since the virus is transmitted like the flu virus and we can expect to have patients who have had no contact with possible carriers. Many cases are not diagnosed because people have not yet developed symptoms and do not know they have been exposed to the virus. Therefore, bearing in mind what is really happening, the blocking of flights with China was useless, however it was bypassed by the indirect connection of flights through other countries. It would have been better to implement the federal quarantine declared by the USA on February 2 with two weeks of isolation which corresponds to the longest time between exposure and the onset of symptoms and affects all subjects who have had contacts both outside and inside China.
The risk represented by COVID-19 is substantially the same as that of the many flu epidemics that occur every year without causing a sensation.
Let's take an example. Every year about ten thousand people die in Italy (mostly elderly or suffering from some previous pathology) from influenza virus. This is not news, especially because these deaths are scattered throughout the national territory. Now imagine that all people at risk are hospitalized in a couple of places, perhaps surrounded by journalists looking for some scoop. Rest assured that the resulting "flu epidemic that can cause death" will push countless people (about six million Italians are affected by flu syndrome each year) to demand analysis and an assistance impossible to obtain.
