From the Common Cold to a Chaotic Contagion: the Potential for Coronaviruses To Cause Outbreaks of Severe Respiratory Disease Representing a Global Health Threat.

ABSTRACT: Coronaviruses are a family of RNA viruses that typically cause mild respiratory disease in humans. However, over the past 20 years, three novel/variant coronaviruses have spilled over from animals into humans and have been associated with severe respiratory illness. In late 2002, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus (CoV) emerged in China and, over the following year, went on to cause approximately 8,100 cases and 774 deaths. A decade later, a cluster of severe pneumonia cases occurred on the Arabian Peninsula, marking the beginning of the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-CoV outbreak, which has resulted in nearly 2,500 confirmed cases and 850 deaths. Now in 2020, we are in the midst of a global pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2, which, at the time of this writing, has c

SUBMITTER: Binnicker MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7833202 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature