Coronavirus Disease 19, the Large-Scale Coronavirus Pandemic

Samad Farashi Bonab¹, Abdolfattah Sarrafnejad² & Nemat Khansari^1*

¹Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
²Department of Immunology, School of Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Dr. Nemat Khansari, Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Keywords: RNA; MERS-CoV; COVID-19

Abstract

Coronaviruses are enveloped viruses possessing a positive-sense single stranded RNA genome and a capsid with helical symmetry. These viruses have the largest genome (26 to 32 kilobases) among RNA viruses. These viruses were termed Coronavirus due to their crown-like morphology under electron microscope. 
Coronaviruses infect humans, other mammals, and birds and can cause respiratory, enteric, hepatic, and neurologic diseases as well as kidney and cardiac problems. So far, seven species of coronaviruses are known to cause human disease. Most human corona virus diseases had a zoonotic origin. The four human corona 
virus (HCoV)-229E, HCoV-NL63, HCoV-OC43, and HCoV-HKU1 are endemic and prevalent [1]. Other human coronaviruses include severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and the newly identified severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that are highly transmissible and pathogenic in humans.

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).