Description
MOROOJ MELIBARI
Covid-19: Epidemiology’s Role in Understanding and Controlling the Pandemic
COLLAPSE
Millions of individuals have been infected with the COVID-19 pandemic, and it has resulted in a considerable number of deaths. This pandemic has presented a public health problem. Because SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted from one individual to another through various channels, the most common of which is respiratory droplets, it is challenging to restrict its spread within the population (Rahman et al., 2021).
Discuss how epidemiology contributes to the understanding of COVID-19.
In December 2019, many people were hospitalized with unknown pneumonia. Epidemiology and diagnosis linked their infection to Wuhan’s seafood and wet animal markets. The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, having a reproductive number of 2.24–3.58, was suspected of causing the epidemic. The early SARS-CoV-2 infection chronology in China is shown. Five acute respiratory distress syndrome patients (one died) were hospitalized on December 18–29, 2019. On December 31, 2019, WHO China received its first cluster report. Over half of the 41 COVID-19-positive patients at the same hospital on January 2, 2020, had cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Thus, this hospital likely had a SARS-CoV-2 nosocomial infection. By January 22, 25 Chinese provinces had reported 571 illnesses and 17 deaths. According to 31 Chinese provinces, 52,526 cases and 1367 deaths occurred on February 12, 2020. New cases dropped to 78 in 31 mainland Chinese provinces by March 23, 2020 (Aimrane et al., 2022).
The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic is global. On January 30, 2020, the WHO reported 82 additional cases outside China in Japan, the Republic of Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand, Nepal, Sri Lanka, India, the US, Canada, France, Italy, Finland, Germany, and the UAE On March 22, 2021, there were 122 992 844 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 2 711 021 deaths globally, with 54 127 466 in the Americas, 42 674 788 in Europe, 14 236 990 in Southeast Asia, 3 006 474 in Africa, and 1 786 689 in Western Pacific (Aimrane et al., 2022).
Tools and methods that epidemiologists are uniquely able to contribute to help contain the pandemic.
Monitoring, early identification, and early warning of infectious diseases are all made possible through the service of public health surveillance, which is an essential function within health systems (Zareie et al., 2023).Recent years have seen a considerable increase in the importance of epidemic detection algorithms across a variety of surveillance systems, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic (Zareie et al., 2023). These algorithms are theoretically and practically examined (Zareie et al., 2023). New statistical approaches that fascinate statisticians are developed and introduced in theory (Zareie et al., 2023).Designing outbreak detection systems and using various methods to track syndromes attracts epidemiologists and health managers (Zareie et al., 2023).
COVID-19 outbreaks are often controlled by contact tracing, although its efficacy is questionable (Juneau et al., 2023). Where possible, contact tracking should be used with physical separation in areas of widespread transmission (Juneau et al., 2023). A cautious interpretation suggests that public health practitioners have 2–3 days from the time a new case develops symptoms to isolate the case and quarantine at least 80% of its contacts, and that once isolated, cases and contacts should infect zero new cases (Juneau et al., 2023).Contact tracing may slow but not stop COVID-19 under slower, less efficient assumptions. Given the limits of this body of data, it is uncertain whether the benefits of tracing outweigh its costs, thus practitioners may consider scaling down efforts as the US CDC advises and using alternative, more promising evidence-based, cost-effective strategies (Juneau et al., 2023).
Epidemiologists serve a crucial role in accomplishing public health goals by researching health determinants, health disparities, disease patterns, disease dissemination within communities, and evaluating health treatments (Smith et al., 2021).Well-designed and well-executed studies that estimate the prevalence and incidence of the virus are crucial for informing health policies and vaccine goals and recommendations (Smith et al., 2021).Population-based assessments are required to determine the effects of immunization and the implementation of preventive personal and social behaviors on infection and mortality rates (Smith et al., 2021). These assessments aim to provide information to the public and policymakers and enhance public health efforts (Smith et al., 2021).
References:
Aimrane, A., Laaradia, M. A., Sereno, D., Perrin, P., Draoui, A., Bougadir, B., Hadach, M., Zahir, M., Fdil, N., Hiba, O. E., Hidan, M. A. E., & Kahime, K. (2022). Insight into COVID-19’s epidemiology, pathology, and treatment. Heliyon, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e08799
Juneau, C.-E., Briand, A.-S., Collazzo, P., Siebert, U., & Pueyo, T. (2023). Effective contact tracing for COVID-19: A systematic review. Global Epidemiology, 5, 100103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloepi.2023.100103
Rahman, S., Montero, M. T. V., Rowe, K., Kirton, R., & Kunik, F. (n.d.). Epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical presentations, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19: A review of current evidence. Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512433.2021.1902303
Smith, M. Y., Bahri, P., Gaudino, J. A., Moreira, R. S., Danyluk, G. M., & Palevsky, S. L. (2021). The role of epidemiologists in communicating SARS-CoV-2 evidence: A call for adopting standards. International Journal of Epidemiology, dyab128. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab128
Zareie, B., Poorolajal, J., Roshani, A., & Karami, M. (2023). Outbreak detection algorithms based on generalized linear model: A review with new practical examples. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 23, 235. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-023-02050-z
