Introduction
Over the past several decades, several new epidemics have been reported
and emerged in particular areas, which have led to the spread of
diseases such as Ebola virus disease (EVD) caused by Ebola viruses, The
disease was first identified in 1976 and still around. Zika (caused by
the Zika virus),
Nipah (caused by the Nipah virus), and coronaviruses (CoVs). Recently, a
new type of viral infection has emerged in Wuhan, Hubei province, China,
(Hui, D. S et al, 2020), and in general, the genetic data and
structurally this virus does not exactly match with the previous CoVs.
The novel CoV strain 2019, Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an
infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome
coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (China-WHO Joint Mission, 2020). However, it
is believed, that the disease originated in the wild animal host
(zoonotic origin) and was later transmitted to humans, the possibility
that food is the source of the transmission is neither undeniable nor
the right reason. Codon usage studies suggest that animal sources such
as bats are more likely to be the source of the onset and spread of this
novel virus(Dhama, Sharun, et al. 2020). The disease was first
identified on December 12th, 2019, and has since spread globally. The
World Health Organization (WHO) has published two valuable news on two
different dates, including the announcement: the first one revealed On
30 January 2020 that the coronavirus outbreaks is a Public Health
Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) and on 11 March 2020 the
second declaration published and revealed that the new CoV strain 2019
is a pandemic infection(Ali, Baloch, et al. 2020), which it defines as
”global spread of a new disease”. The pieces of evidence of local
transmission and spread of the disease have also become a dangerous
ring, and many countries have begun to spread awareness across the
country and most of them have announced an emergency alert throughout
the countries, and across all six WHO regions (Hui, D. S et al, 2020).
According to various studies the most common symptoms of Covid-19
include fever, dry cough, and difficulty in breathing but Muscle pain,
sputum production, diarrhea, and sore throat are less common(Singhal
2020)(Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). Although most of
the result cases are mild, and some of them do not feel that he or she
infected with the virus, in the progress, some symptoms such as
pneumonia and congestion of some organs of the body have been reported.
In March 2020, with the considering age levels and other health issues,
the average rate of death per number of diagnosed cases in March 2020
was 4.4 percent; however, it ranges from 0.2 percent to 15 percent (Li
et al,2020). And also have been reported in the Gulf states. Since the
beginning of the spread of the disease from Wuhan, a city in the Hubei
Province of China, which dates back to December 2019, a very high rate
has been announced, which more than 80,000 COVID-19 cases have been
reported in China. With the majority of those from Hubei and surrounding
provinces (WHO). China fact-finding mission estimated that the epidemic
in China had reached its peak of the spread between late January and
early February 2020 (WHO Media Report, 2020. In early March, the number
of cases in China dropped dramatically, however, at that time cases have
been reported in all continents except for the southern hemisphere,
after a while in some parts of the world the rate of infection and death
is rapidly increasing. After a while, the rate of infection and death
because of the COVID-19 has risen sharply, in the United States of
America and many other Western European countries include the United
Kingdom more cases have been reported and the disease has reached
Southeast Asia, with more cases being registered daily in a country like
Iran. and this has forced the countries to announce sudden lockdown(Wu,
Leung et al. 2020).
The virus is typically transmitted via respiratory droplets produced
through coughing and sneezing as well as through contact with
contaminated objects or touching the face of an infected person (Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). Some studies have suggested
that the virus may remain on different surfaces for 72 hours (National
Institutes of Health, 2020).
The period between exposure and onset of the disease lasts from two days
to 14 days, with an average of 5 days (Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, 2020 Zhou et al, 2020). The standard method of diagnosis is
by reverse
transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) from a nasopharyngeal
swab. The
infection can also be diagnosed from a combination of symptoms, risk
factors, and a chest CT
scan showing features of pneumonia (Jin YH et al, 2020).
On February 19, 2020, 2 people in the Qum region of Iran was admitted
with atypical pneumonia that later proved to be COVID-19. In the next
few days around the country were 245 more cases. This was the beginning
of one of the largest and most serious clusters of
COVID-19 in the Gulf states (WHO, 2020). Despite the aggressive effort,
the disease continues
to spread and the number of affected patients is rising in Iran and it
has also become higher
than that of China. Iran has recorded a higher number of cases per day
and new deaths per day.
Until the preparation of this research 7 July 2020, as illustrated by a
chart from the (Figure 4) the coronavirus COVID-19 has affected 215
countries and territories around the world with a total 11,749,001
cases, resulting in over 540,860 deaths but more than 6,742,622 people
have recovered from this deadly virus (Worldometer, 2020).