Why Covid-19 Shutdown The World When Ebola, SARS And MERS Did Not

Over the years, the world has had to battle different types of emerging diseases. They exhibit different patterns of spread and fatality. Some are epidemic localized or pandemic. Others are just an outbreak of interest.

However, the government response to these disease determine how well it is manage. The approach is usually determined by the mode of transmission and partial fatality . The most recent disease is covid-19 cause by coronavirus.

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Covid-19 has changed the landscape worldwide. This is the first time the world is experiencing a global pandemic of this magnitude since the beginning of this century with the last one in 1918 called the Spanish flu.

How Dangerous Is Covid-19

The approach presently adopted for managing covid-19 is similar to how Spanish flu was managed. Currently, there is no cure for covid-19. The target is to break the chain of transmission.

The rate of transmission of covid-19 is R0 (R naught) 3. This is the high. That is one covid-19 patient can infect up to 3 persons. And that three people further infect three more people. And a fatality rate of about 5% which is low when compared to other infections.

But why did Spanish flu and covid-19 shutdown a whole planet? The question is apt when considering the fact that some deadly diseases have surfaced the earth but never cause this level of fear and shutdown worldwide.

How Dangerous Is Ebola, MERS And SARS

Ebola, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) had similar characteristics in terms of mode of transmission. But they have different fatality rates. In some cases, Ebola had a 60% fatality rate. But they all have something in common. Their rate of transmission was low. Some had below R0 of 1. That means the infection will phase out gradually. The infection can only be contracted by body contact with body fluid of infected persons. Body fluid includes sweat, blood, urine, etc or through animal contact. And these fluids are heavy, hence are not airborne. This means that it is very common among family members and health workers treating them. It does not infect people from a far.

One more thing is that these other deadly infections cannot be transmitted by presymptomatic patients. This means that if a person is ill and have symptoms, people will suspect on time and avoid such ones. This helps to break the chain of transmission.

Now comes covid-19 and it's ability to spread by asymptomatic patients. Worst still, it is transmitted through droplets. And these droplets can stay in surfaces for days. This makes it terrible.

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At the end of the day, we have more covid-19 infection than the others. But why is covid-19 feared more than the others? It is simple. If Ebola infect 100 persons in a space of a month killing 60, covid-19 will infect 100000 persons within the same time frame. At the end, it will kill about 1000 people. Looking at the figure, it is clear that covid-19 is more dangerous.

Covid-19 Lockdown Situation

Lockdown in Lagos State

So the only solution is to break the chain of transmission. The only effective way to do this is to shutdown the system encouraging social distancing which was not that serious with Ebola.

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