Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)/SARS-CoV-2: Hopefully, the Human-Virus Battle Ends Soon on a Positive Note

The emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseasesare not uncommon to humans. We have been seeing this,repeated many a time in the past, that the new/novel microbialspecies emerge and pose a potential threat to the whole ofmankind. Among those infectious diseases which threatenedmankind, the Smallpox virus appears to have had the greatestimpact. Smallpox virus was suspected to be present on theearth since 10,000 B.C., but its presence and the effect onhumans was established only in the late 18th century to theearly 20th century when people suffered from itsconsequences. Most people (>75%) infected with smallpoxdied, leaving a sense of doom among humans. Later, orprobably during the same time, there was the emergence ofan infectious disease called “plague”, which swept across manycountries and caused a lot of mortality. This disease was alsocalled the black death, due to the nature of lesions causedand the thousands of people who were dying in very less time.We have also seen the emergence of a novel influenza virus,the Spanish flu (1918) which caused a severe pandemic.Interestingly, all these infectious diseases caused pandemicsinvolving several countries, and causing increased mortality,especially in the European continent. In this editorial I discussthe significance of the most recent pandemic caused by theSevere Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV2), also called Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19).