The global emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in human

Mandal, Bikash

Coronaviruses are spherical and enveloped RNA viruses that infect diverse vertebrates like mammals, birds and fish. There are five human coronavirus species and all of their origin is linked to animal like bat and rodent. The two coronavirus species, Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus and Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus are lethal to human. In the second week of December 2019, there was an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown cause in the people associated with a seafood market in Wuhan, China. The disease was designated as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the virus was identified as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) of the genus Betacoronavirus. SARS-CoV-2 being highly transmissible and pathogenic, soon it has spread to 213 countries killing > 0.47 million people. The information on the research findings of SARS-CoC-2 are pouring from all over the world. In a special issue of VirusDisease, “The global emergence of coronavirus in human”, various topics relating to emergence, potential cases, transmission dynamics, diagnosis, pathogenesis, food safety, therapeutic strategies and antiviral properties of Ayurveda products are covered.