Coronavirus (COVID-19) Collection
Infectivity versus fatality of SARS-CoV-2 mutations and influenza
On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19, which is caused by SARS-CoV-2, to be a public health emergency (World Health Organization, 2021c). The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic presents great threats to public health and significant challenges to global economic development. As of February 20, 2022, the COVID-19 epidemic has caused more than 422 million confirmed cases worldwide and a number of confirmed deaths approaching 5.8 million (World Health Organization, 2021a).Respiratory syncytial virus and influenza epidemics disappearance in Korea during the 2020–2021 season of COVID-19
Since China first reported a case of unidentified pneumonia to the WHO that occurred in Wuhan, Hubei Province on December 31, 2019, until March 16, 2021, in just 15 months, more than 120 million confirmed cases and more than 2.7 million confirmed deaths occurred globally. (WHO, 2021) Faced with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, many countries implemented non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to mitigate its spread. The NPI elements consist of social distancing, school closure, “test and isolate” symptomatic people, hand hygiene, respiratory etiquette, and environmental cleaning (Bo et al., 2021).Changing influenza activity in the Southern hemisphere countries during the COVID-19 pandemic
The decrease in influenza activity in the Northern hemisphere in 2020 has been widely reported (Itaya et al., 2020; World Health Organization, 2021). However, previous studies analysing influenza activity in 2020 in the Southern hemisphere have several limitations, such as not comparing influenza transmission dynamics in 2020 with those of previous years (Olsen et al., 2020), not including all the weeks of the study year (Olsen et al., 2020; Sullivan et al., 2020), and focusing on single countries (Sullivan et al., 2020).Clinical outcomes and characteristics of patients hospitalized for Influenza or COVID-19 in Germany
Since the beginning of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, the novel respiratory disease coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has been compared with seasonal Influenza. The equating of COVID-19 with another pandemic respiratory disease with similarities in symptoms, transmission, and risk groups is obvious at first, but it tempts to underestimate the impact of the current pandemic situation and to minimize COVID-19-related outcomes. Potentially, SARS-CoV-2 appears to cause higher morbidity and mortality rates than seasonal Influenza, also due to a lack of basic immunity in the population and lack of vaccination and medication (Petersen et al., 2020; RKI, 2020a, 2020b).Monitoring the mortality impact of COVID-19 in Europe: What can be learned from 2009 influenza H1N1p mortality studies?
On March 11, 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) characterized COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, as a global pandemic (WHO, 2020a). Understanding the pandemic’s mortality impact is critical to the public health response. It is clear that the number of laboratory-confirmed deaths is growing rapidly, but it is not clear what proportion of the true number of pandemic deaths the laboratory-confirmed count represents, because some deaths caused by the virus may instead be attributed to underlying diseases, while others may be attributed to COVID-19 without laboratory confirmation.Influenza versus COVID-19 cases among influenza-like illness patients in travelers from Wuhan to Hong Kong in January 2020
The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has dominated the world for well over half a year since the early outbreak in Wuhan, China. The pandemic hit Wuhan, Hubei, China hard, and the city had been in lockdown for more than 70 days. Much attention has been focused on estimating the accurate prevalence of COVID-19 cases in Wuhan in January 2020. Even though large-scale serological studies have been conducted, the initial spread of the virus in Wuhan still remains unclear. It seems clear, though, that the COVID-19 outbreak followed the seasonal influenza epidemic.Simultaneous circulation of COVID-19 and flu in Italy: Potential combined effects on the risk of death?
Social distancing and other forms of precautionary public health measures have led to an effective control of beta coronavirus circulation in China, Italy, other European countries, and the USA. The blood toll paid in Italy was early in the pandemic and particularly high. At present, a ‘ceasefire’ has been successfully achieved, but the war against COVID-19 may not yet be over. Indeed, a resurgence of infections due to beta coronavirus could be observed at the time of possible simultaneous circulation of COVID-19 and influenza.Does COVID-19 infection impact on the trend of seasonal influenza infection? 11 countries and regions, from 2014 to 2020
The number of people infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has surged worldwide since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in December 2019 in Wuhan, China (World Health Organization, 2020a). COVID-19 has been featured extensively in both traditional and social media, leading to high levels of attention to a previously unknown respiratory disease and to risk perception among the public (Rasmussen and Goodman, 2018). Moreover, infection prevention and control strategies to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in community settings have aligned with those used for other common respiratory viral infections such as influenza; such strategies have included hand hygiene, cough etiquette, and avoiding close contact with sick persons (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020).Clinical characteristics of critically ill patients co-infected with SARS-CoV-2 and the influenza virus in Wuhan, China
The World Health Organization (WHO) named the coronavirus disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and declared it as a pandemic. Similar to the influenza virus, SARS-CoV-2 is commonly transmitted through respiratory droplets and contact. The world’s population is generally susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Most COVID-19 patients show mild influenza-like symptoms, such as fever, cough and fatigue. However, approximately 5% of patients rapidly progress to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), septic shock and multiple organ failure, and are admitted to intensive care units.Characteristics of respiratory virus infection during the outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus in Beijing
Viral infection is becoming a disaster threatening human health because of the emergence of new respiratory viruses such as the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which is spreading in China (Munster et al., 2020), as well as influenza A H1N1, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) that emerged in the past decade (DomínguezCherit et al., 2009; Assiri et al., 2013; Lee et al., 2003). 2019-nCoV has been given much attention recently (National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China, 2020), and the disease caused by 2019-nCoV was named as COVID-19, short for “coronavirus disease 2019”, by World Health Organization (2020).Positive effects of COVID-19 control measures on influenza prevention
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which started in late 2019, has now become a worldwide disaster (Wu and McGoogan, 2020). According to the World Health Organization (WHO) (WHO, 2020a), as of March 31, 2020, more than 750 890 cases had been confirmed, including 36 405 deaths.
