Coronavirus Disease 2019: The Emergence of Popular Unverified Myths and Realities to Its Spread

Abstract

In December 2019 there was a plague of a novel human coronavirus disease called coronavirus disease 2019 and abbreviated as COVID-19. It's caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The disease is being described as a world pandemic following its spread across over 199 nations and territories in several regions of the globe. The disease is characterized by respiratory distress and fever, with the likelihood of being transmitted via contact with droplets emanating from the cough and sneezing of an infected patient which readily contaminates animate and inanimate surfaces with a period of 2-14 days. On contact, approximately 80%, 5% and 14% of infected persons display mild symptoms, critical condition and develop severe conditions respectively, while the opposite 1 % are asymptomatic. Based on online data available as at March 30 th 2020, 15:49 GMT, over 746, 066 confirmed cases, 35,347 fatalities and 157,078 recovered cases have been ascertained. According to current global trends at the time of this study, the mortality in Africa, Asia, Australia/Oceania, South America, North America and Europe were 3.10%, 4.07%, 0.39%, 6.31%, 1.79% and 2.29% respectively. The continuous spread of the virus has also given way to the popularization of numerous misconceptions or myths hovering through the news and social media channels. Hence, this paper clarifies information about the virus with respect to various terms (its spread, intermediate host, creation/source, conditions for survival, treatment drugs/vaccines, persistence on inanimate surfaces, among others) and the need for research to be carried out on the myths surrounding the virus.