A public health crisis can be defined as events that negatively affect the public health infrastructure and infrastructures like water, sanitation, health, energy, shelter, and food. Sources of crisis are varied from war and nuclear accidents to emergencies like pandemics and epidemics (Buckle Jr, 2019). Every once in a while, a pandemic arises that wreaks havoc to public health systems around the world. Currently, Coronavirus pandemic poses a threat to global public health. The current essay explores the Coronavirus, the history, and development of the disease, the symptoms, and the impact of the disease worldwide.
The first Coronavirus in humans was discovered in 1965. Since then, scientists have discovered and developed treatment and vaccines for the various kinds of Coronaviruses until recently. In December 2019, a new strain of Coronavirus was discovered in Wuhan China (Adhikari et al., 2020). At first, it was hard to tell much about the virus because it was a novel strain. However, in the days that followed, it was revealed that the new strain was more aggressive than previous ones, and scientists started working to find a cure.
Over the days that followed the discovery of the first case, the virus spread fast across China and outside the country’s borders. By January 2020, more countries reported their first cases prompting the World Health Organization to declare the virus now dubbed COVID-19, a public health crisis of international concern. AS of June 2020, only a few countries have not felt the impact of the virus, while others like New Zealand have managed to contain and stop the spread of the virus. The virus also has had different impacts in different countries with European countries like Italy, Spain, and Brazil, having felt the weight of the virus most judging from the high number of infections and deaths. As of June 2020, the virus has no cure yet. Approximately 7.4 million people have caught the virus within six months. Of the infections, over 3.6 million people have recovered while over 400,000 have died even as the virus continues (WHO, 2020)
COVID-19 is mainly spread through cough droplets that may fall into surfaces or be inhaled by a person who is not infected who the contracts the virus (Adhikari et al., 2020). Consequently, health organizations like the CDC have advised that people avoid public gatherings, sanitize and thoroughly clean their hands using soap and water or sanitizer with alcohol (CDC, n.d). Moreover, people have taken to wearing masks to prevent inhaling the virus from an infected person.
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has had particular effects. One of these effects that resulted from the pandemic was mass layoffs and loss of employment (Aljazeera, 2020). Millions of people lost their income. With the loss of income, other health concerns like lack of medication and starvation have been on the rise.
Another impact of the virus is that it has overwhelmed the public health system. During the first days of the virus, hospitals were ill-equipped both in terms of knowledge and equipment like ventilators (Doherty, 2020). Nurses and doctors had to work for days on end without rest, and some would collapse from fatigue while others contracted the virus in different parts of the world and died.
Another effect is the number of deaths from the virus, especially of older adults and those with preexisting conditions. Moreover, the virus has had devastating effects on businesses worldwide, which has negatively affected the economy. For example, at the beginning of March, the global airline industry was already predicting losses of up to 29 billion (Aljazeera, 2020)