engleski

The third coronavirus epidemic in the third millennium: what’s next?

The current epidemic of a new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has reopened the issue of the role and importance of coronaviruses in human pathology. This epidemic definitively confirms that this heretofore relatively harmless family of viruses, Coronaviridae, includes major pathogens of epidemic potential. The COVID-19 epidemic has clearly demonstrated the power of infectious diseases, which have been responsible for many devastating epidemics throughout history. Most coronaviruses are adapted to their hosts, whether animal or human, although cases of possible animal-to-human transmission and adaptation have been described in the past two decades, causing two epidemics. The first such outbreak originated in China in 2002. The disease was named severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The cause was shown to be a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV), an animal virus that had crossed the species barrier and infected humans. In the summer of 2012, another epidemic caused by a novel coronavirus broke out in the Middle East. The disease, often complicated with respiratory and renal failure, was called Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), while the novel coronavirus causing it was called Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). In mid-December of 2019, a pneumonia outbreak erupted once again in China, and spread during the next two months throughout the country, with currently over 80 000 cases and more than 2400 fatal outcomes (CFR 2.5%). Exported cases have been reported in 30 countries throughout the world, with over 2400 registered cases, of which 276 are in Europe. On February 25, the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Zagreb, Croatia, and was linked to the current outbreak in the Lombardy and Veneto regions of northern Italy. This third coronavirus epidemic caused by SARS-CoV-2, underscores the need for the ongoing surveillance of infectious disease trends throughout the world. The examples of pandemic influenza, avian influenza, but also the three epidemics caused by the novel coronaviruses, indicate that respiratory infections are a major threat to humanity. Although Ebola virus disease and avian influenza are far more contagious and influenza currently has a greater epidemic potential, each of the three novel coronaviruses require urgent epidemiologic surveillance. It is hoped that developments in vaccinology and antiviral treatment, as well as new preventive measures, will ultimately vanquish this and other potential threats from infectious diseases in the future.

COVID-19 ; coronaviruses ; epidemic ; SARS-CoV-2

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