A large number of patient developed pneumonia of unknown cause in the capital city Wuhan of Hubei province in China during the month of Dec 2019, with clinical presentations greatly resembling viral pneumonia while some rapidly progressed to severe illness and fatal outcome. International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) named the virus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and WHO officially named the disease COVID-19. World Health Organization (WHO) on January 30 declared the outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern due to rapid global spread. On 11 February 2020, WHO announced that "COVID-19" (meaning coronavirus disease-2019) will be the official name of the disease. This report reviews the genetic structure, infection source, transmission route, pathogenesis, clinical characteristics, and treatment and prevention of the SARS-CoV-2, so that it can provide references for follow-up research, prevention and treatment, and may help readers to have the latest understanding of this new infectious disease. Information have been gathered mainly from relevant researches and papers that were published recently. For this narrative review, more than 49 relevant scientific articles and reports were considered from various databases (e.g., Google Scholar, PubMed and Science Direct) using keywords such as SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; corona virus; pneumonia; respiratory infection. The results from this review show that the situation is rapidly evolving, as human-to-human transmission is occurring, and the number of new cases and mortalities is increasing by the day and on a global level. There is still ambiguity about mutation risks and how the virus spreads as the source was not yet identified. Major gaps in knowledge about the origin of the virus, epidemiology and transmission impose a great challenge, which emphasizes the need for further studies in the future. There are neither vaccines nor effective treatments for the disease caused by the virus, but efforts are typically confined to symptomatic and supportive management. Antiviral and corticosteroids were used in severe illness but had no effective outcome.
Background: A large number of patient developed pneumonia of unknown cause in the capital cityWuhan of Hubei province in China during the month of Dec 2019, with clinical presentations greatlyresembling viral pneumonia while some rapidly progressed to severe illness and fatal outcome. InternationalCommittee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) named the virus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus2 (SARS-CoV-2) and WHO officially named the disease COVID-19. World Health Organization (WHO) onJanuary 30 declared the outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern due to rapidglobal spread. On 11 February 2020, WHO announced that “COVID-19” (meaning coronavirus disease-2019) will be the official name of the disease. This report reviews the genetic structure, infection source,transmission route, pathogenesis, clinical characteristics, and treatment and prevention of the SARS-CoV-2, so that it can provide references for follow-up research, prevention and treatment, and may helpreaders to have the latest understanding of this new infectious disease. Information have been gatheredmainly from relevant researches and papers that were published recently. Methods: For this narrative review, more than 50 relevant scientific articles and reports wereconsidered from various databases (e.g., Google Scholar, PubMed and Science Direct) using keywordssuch as SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; coronavirus; pneumonia; respiratory infection Results: The results from this review show that the situation is rapidly evolving, as human-to-humantransmission is occurring, and the number of new cases and mortalities is increasing by the day andon a global level. There is still ambiguity about mutation risks and how the virus spreads as thesource was not yet identified. Major gaps in knowledge about the origin of the virus, epidemiologyand transmission impose a great challenge, which emphasizes the need for further studies in thefuture. Conclusion: There are neither vaccines nor effective treatments for the disease caused by the virus,but efforts are typically confined to symptomatic and supportive management. Antivirals andcorticosteroids were used in severe illness but had no effective outcome. Bangladesh J Medicine July 2020; 31(2) :94-101
Background Hepatitis B virus DNA (HBV-DNA) assessment is recommended for diagnosing and monitoring chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. Quantitative hepatitis B surface antigen (qHBsAg) estimation adjunct to HBV-DNA is vital for assessing HBV chronicity and therapeutic prognosis. This study aimed to estimate the qHBsAg and compare its diagnostic performance with that of the HBV-DNA levels in CHB patients from Bangladesh. Methodology A total of 148 CHB patients were enrolled in this study. qHBsAg and hepatitis B e-antigen (HBeAg) were estimated using chemiluminescent and enzyme immunoassays, respectively, and HBV-DNA was quantified using real-time polymerase chain reaction. The parameters and diagnostic performances were analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results The overall levels (mean ± SD) of qHBsAg, HBV-DNA, and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) among the total population (n = 148) were 3.45 ± 0.80 log 10 IU/mL, 4.40 ± 2.44 log 10 IU/mL, and 86.17 ± 39.06 IU/L, respectively. Significant differences were observed in the levels of both qHBsAg (p = 0.004) and HBV-DNA (p < 0.0001) in cases with HBeAg positivity. qHBsAg levels showed a weak positive correlation with the levels of HBV-DNA and ALT in HBeAg-positive CHB patients, but no such relationship was observed in HBeAg-negative CHB patients. ROC curve analysis showed that the area under the curve for the qHBsAg level to distinguish high HBV-DNA levels (>5 log 10 IU/mL) was 0.653 (p = 0.002), which indicated an acceptable diagnostic performance. The best cut-off of qHBsAg for predicting high HBV-DNA levels was 3.469 log 10 IU/mL. Conclusions Our results indicated that qHBsAg might be a useful marker for monitoring HBV-DNA in CHB patients throughout treatment and follow-up.
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