Open AccessCOVID-19 infection: Disease detection and mobile technology
Author(s) -
Jaya Verma,
Amar Shankar Mishra
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
peerj
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.927
H-Index - 70
ISSN - 2167-8359
DOI - 10.7717/peerj.10345
Subject(s) - pandemic , outbreak , disease , medicine , transmission (telecommunications) , covid-19 , hand washing , disease surveillance , pneumonia , intensive care medicine , coronavirus , infectious disease (medical specialty) , environmental health , internet privacy , business , virology , computer science , telecommunications , hygiene , pathology
Background A pneumonia outbreak of unknown etiology took place in Wuhan, Hubei province, China and spread quickly worldwide in December 2019. Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention identified a novel beta-coronavirus called 2019-nCoV, now officially known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) that is responsible for the pandemic. The coronavirus COVID-19 affected 215 countries and territories around the world and more than 99 hundred thousand people at present ( Nature Nanotechnology, 2020 ). At present, there are no specific vaccines or treatments available for COVID-19. However, there are many ongoing clinical trials evaluating potential treatments. At this time the experts recommend precautions such as social distancing, hand washing, and wearing face masks to reduce disease transmission. This review article aims to improve the readers’ awareness towards the important role of mobile technology for SARS-CoV-2. Methodology To achieve this objective, we performed a COVID-19 literature review from various sources that include data from the published articles as well as World Health Organization reports on coronavirus disease and how mobile technology is useful to fight against this disease. Results Mobile technology can be helpful in mapping disease spread and provides an easy way to provide awareness that promotes safety and adoption of necessary precautions to mitigate and stop community transmission. Conclusion The spread rate of COVID-19 is very high and until now no vaccines are available to control this disease. To this end we should leverage other avenues such as digital technologies to protect ourselves from this disease. Mobile technology such as smartphones are playing an important role in this pandemic, by launching apps to track coronavirus infected people. These apps are very easy to use and provide self-isolation guidelines as well as other safety tips.