Abstract

MATURING LAB SCALE COVID-19 TECHNOLOGIES FOR TRACKING, TESTING, AND TREATING

Mugdha Nandedkar* and Bansode Shivani Santosh

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was discovered in Hubei Province, China in December 2019. A cluster of patients were admitted with fever, cough, shortness of breath, and other symptoms. Initial diagnosis of pneumonia was found by Computed Tomography (CT). By 10 January 2020 samples from patients’ bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid were analysed to reveal a pathogen with a similar genetic sequence to the betacoronavirus B lineage. It was discovered that this new pathogen had ∼80%, ∼50%, and ∼96% similarity to the genome of the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus (SARS-CoV), Middle East respiratory syndrome virus (MERSCoV), and bat coronavirus RaTG13, respectively. The novel coronavirus was named SARS-CoV-2, the pathogen causing COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted from human to human. The current hypothesis is that the first transmission occurred between bats and a yet-to-be-determined intermediate host animal. It is estimated that a SARS-CoV-2-infected person will infect approximately three new people (the reproductive number is averaged to be 3.28). The symptoms can vary, with some patients remaining asymptomatic, while others present with fever, cough, fatigue, and a host of other symptoms. At this stage, the most likely mode of transmission is thought to be through direct contact and droplet spread.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2, Computed Tomography (CT), bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL).