Impact of COVID-19, Pre and Post Exposure Prophylaxis of COVID-19

Abstract

COVID-19 is a type of coronavirus disease belonging to the family Coronaviridae. The disease is thought to originate from bats and was spread to people through an unknown medium in Wuhan, China. Ideally the condition is spread by inhalation or close interaction with infected droplets that have an incubation period between two and fourteen days. Today, there are thousands of infections and deaths that have been caused by the disease. Moreover, the symptoms of the disease include fever, cough, sneezing, sore throat, difficulty breathing, and tiredness. Additionally, the diagnosis of the disease starts by gathering samples of the upper and lower respiratory tracts of the infected person. Also, chest X-rays and CT scan are used in the diagnosis stage. Basically, there is no precise treatment for the ailment, and this calls for the need to prevent the disease from spreading. Notable prevention strategies are isolation of the infected persons, proper ventilation, hand hygiene and use of personal protective equipment. Therefore, this paper provides in-depth information on COVID-19 as it discusses the disease epidemiology, transmission, clinical features, diagnosis, treatment and prevention. This makes population continue suffering severe losses in the absence of strict prophylaxis strategy against this pandemic. It is well known that prevention is better than cure, therefore, we plan to display the current strategies that should be implemented prior to exposure to infection and underlines its effectiveness in containing the infection. Pre & Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP & PrEP) is aimed at preventing the development of infection and disease after and before exposure to an infectious agent. PEP is indicated by the WHO, PAHO, the United States HHS and other widely recognized organizations for HIV infection, as well as for other infectious diseases. While several trials are ongoing for treatment of COVID-19 scientific research on chemoprophylaxis is still lacking even though it has potential to flatten the curve allowing us time to complete research on vaccines. Therefore, this paper provides in-depth information on COVID-19 as it discusses the disease epidemiology, transmission, clinical features, diagnosis, treatment and prevention.