Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Associated Corona Virus [SARS-CoV]

Abstract

An outbreak of “severe atypical pneumonia” in Guangdong province, southern China, during late 2002, subsequently spreading to neighboring nations and rapidly worldwide, alarmed populations across the globe. The disease was named “severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)” and was transmissible from person to person through droplets, especially causing clusters in health-care workers. The epidemic had a high mortality rate and morbidity due to the highly pathogenic and transmissible virus with a large RNA genome. The disease is distinguished primarily by the debilitation of the lower respiratory tract. The complexity of SARS-CoV pathogenesis is characterized by the alveolar damage caused by epithelial cell disruption and disbandment of the virus to different organs. Similar to other coronaviruses like MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV is thought to have originated in bats. The virus belongs to the order Nidovirales, family Coronaviridae, with a 29.8 kb long positive sense ssRNA genome. The high recombination rate and versatile RNA polymerase of the SARS-CoV virus, combined with the pervasiveness and diversity of Coronaviridae, fathom the emergence of the epidemic. According to the WHO, 8098 individuals across the world became infected, with 774 deaths reported, a mortality rate of 9.6%, during the 2003 outbreak. After an intensive global public health intervention to combat the viral epidemic, a potential pandemic was contained, and the virus was no longer a public health danger after 2004. With no specific medications or vaccines available to combat the virus, the flare-up was curbed through vigilant suspicion of infection, isolation of affected individuals, contact tracing, and stringent outbreak containment procedures.