International Pulmonologist’s Consensus on COVID-19

Corona virus comprises of a large family of viruses that are common in human beings as
well animals (camels, cattle, cats, and bats). There are seven different strains of corona
virus. [15]
229E (alpha coronavirus)
NL63 (alpha coronavirus)
OC43 (beta coronavirus)
HKU1 (beta coronavirus)
MERS-CoV (the beta coronavirus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or
MERS)
SARS-CoV (the beta coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, or
SARS)
SARS-CoV-2 (the novel coronavirus that causes coronavirus disease 2019, or
COVID-19)
Sometimes corona virus from animals infect people and spread further via human to human
transmission such as with MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, and now with this COVID 19 (Corona
disease 2019). The virus that causes COVID-19 is designated severe acute respiratory
syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2); previously, referred to as 2019-nCoV.
Towards December 2019, this novel corona virus was identified as a cause of upper and
lower respiratory tract infections in Wuhan, a city in the Hubei Province of China. It rapidly
spread, resulting in an epidemic throughout China and then gradually spreading to other
parts of the world in pandemic proportions. It has affected almost every continent in this
world, except Antarctica. In February 2020, the World Health Organization designated the
disease COVID-19, which stands for corona virus disease 2019 [1].