Afia Ohemeng
With the current epidemic still raging on, we take a look at two other diseases that captured the attention of the world’s human population for many weeks. First on the list is the current pandemic:
Covid-19 (2019)
The Coronavirus was officially announced as a global health emergency on the 31 January 2020. On 11 March, it was upgraded to global pandemic status.
The virus outbreak was traced to the city of Wuhan in the Hubei Province of China. In less than two months from December 2019, the virus had made its way across 121 countries. With an official name change in 11 February, the Coronavirus became COVID-19.
Before its rapid spread around the world, it was considered a local issue among the inhabitants of China.
Ebola (2018)
The Ebola outbreak was first declared in the Democratic Republic of Congo on 1 August 2018. Amazingly, that was the tenth outbreak in the troubled region.The next declaration made by WHO was to announce the outbreak as a Global emergency on 17 July 2019.
The virus began affecting humans in the Guangdong province of southern China in 2002. The virus was later identified in 2003 and was thought to be transmitted from bats to civet cats and then humans.
VERDICT
SARS vs COVID-19: SARS (also a type of coronavirus) had a higher death rate(15%) than COVID-19(0.4 -3.5%) even though the later has wiped out more lives.
EBOLA vs COVID-19: Ebola had a death rate of 50% as compared to the death rate of COVID-19. Even with it’s high death rate, Ebola is not as contagious as COVID-19.
SARS vs EBOLA: Comparing their mortality rates, EBOLA is far dangerous.
THE WAY FORWARD
EBOLA VIRUS: Two drugs are being tested currently for ebola virus treatment, under a therapeutic trial named PALM, a WHO initiative.
COVID-19: Currently, researchers are making strides is discovering a cure for the disease.
SARS: Appropriate infection control practices were implemented throughout the affected regions significantly reducing their risks.
