Abstract

THERAPEUTICS IN COVID 19: AN UPDATE

Jayakumar K.*

ABSTRACT

Corona viruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans, these viruses cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses include some cases of the common cold (which is caused also by certain other viruses, predominantly rhinoviruses), while more lethal varieties can cause SARS, MERS, and COVID-19. Corona viruses are single stranded RNA viruses with a size of 65-125 nm in diameter and length ranging from 26- 32kbs. The corona viruse’s family consists of 4 subgroups: alpha (α), beta (β), gamma (γ) and delta (δ) corona virus. The corona virus family was believed initially to only infect animals until the world witnessed a severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak caused by SARS-CoV, 2002 in Guangdong, China. A decade later, another pathogenic corona virus, known as Middle East respiratory syndrome corona virus (MERS-CoV) raged across in Middle Eastern countries. During the final leg of the decade. China experienced an outbreak of a novel corona virus that killed more than 1800 people, and infected over 70,000 individuals within the first fifty days of the epidemic. This virus seems to have originated in Wuhan. The novel corona virus was reported to be a member of the B group of corona viruses. It was named 2019 novel corona virus (2019-nCov) by the Chinese researchers. The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) named the virus as SARS-CoV-2 and the disease as COVID-19.[1]

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