RISE OF COVID 19 PANDEMIC: MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES AND EFFECT ON HUMAN HEALTH AND WEALTH

Abstract

The world is currently witnessing a pandemic crisis caused by SARS CoV-2 having its origin in Wuhan, China. Transformation from epidemic to pandemic within a very short time-gap resulting in massive global mortality has created a sudden global deadlock affecting both human health and wealth. Clinical symptoms expressed by affected patients include dry cough, dyspnea, fever, bilateral lung infiltration and ultimately severe acute respiratory distress in advanced stages. The disease is spread over 150 countries and termed as COVID-19 by the World Health Organization (W.H.O). As per W.H.O report on 2^nd May 2020 there are over 3000000 infected cases distributed throughout the globe claiming more than 200000 lives. Mortality rate is accelerating at high speed and presently crossing 6%. The entire global healthcare system is exposed and found to be inadequate to mitigate the deadly virus. At present there is no medicine or vaccine available or clinically proven for COVID-19 management. However, the global research spotlight is now focused on development of drugs or vaccine against the virus. This has created a long pipeline of such agents which are now under preclinical or clinical evaluation stage. Some existing drugs are also under efficacy evaluations against COVID-19 whereas some are allowed to be used as a prophylactic measure. WHO has framed clear guidelines for all countries to manage the spread of the virus and these are being implemented through existing government & regulatory bodies of specific countries. The present work will give detailed outline on the pandemic spread, transmission mode, therapeutic strategies and its impact on day to day human life.