Knowing about the coronaviruses

Practicing and educating about personal and environment hygiene

Implementing “The Guaranteed Mask Supply for Macao Residents scheme”

Active surveillance of suspicious cases

Conclusion

References

Abstract

The 2019-nCoV infection that is caused by a novel strain of coronavirus was first detected in China in the end of December 2019 and declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization on January 30, 2020. Community pharmacists in one of the first areas that had confirmed cases of the viral infection, Macau, joined the collaborative force in supporting the local health emergency preparedness and response arrangements. This paper aimed to improve the understanding of community pharmacists’ role in case of 2019-CoV outbreak based on the practical experiences in consultation with the recommendations made by the International Pharmaceutical Federation on the Coronavirus 2019-nCoV outbreak.

Knowing about the coronaviruses

To many people, the memories about severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the recent outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) were still fresh and worrisome. SARS was caused by a novel betacoronavirus that emerged in Guangdong, China in November 2002.9 It resulted in more than 8000 human infections and 774 deaths in 37 countries during 2002–۰۳٫۱۰ At that time, SARS hit hard on the neighboring city of Hong Kong which resulted in 1755 confirmed cases including 300 fatal cases11 but no cases were identified in Macau. On the other hand, MERS, caused by a different kind of novel coronavirus, was first detected in Saudi Arabia in 201212 and was responsible for 2499 human infections and 861 fatalities since September 2012.13 When scientific evidence suggested that the virus responsible for the pneumonia-like disease spreading fast across China in December 2019 was closely related to SARS and MERS, any miscommunication could easily spark panic among the general public.

Out of the hundreds of coronavirues, 7 of them are known to cause human disease and only 3 of the 7 can have more serious outcomes in people including SARS, MERS and 2019-CoV.13 Similar to SARS and MERS, patients infected with 2019-CoV exhibited symptoms of viral pneumonia including fever, difficulty breathing, and bilateral lung infiltration.14 In the most severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death.15 However, the disease may occur with mild symptoms only, including: low-grade fever, cough, malaise, runny nose, sore throat but without any warning signs,16,17 which made early detection challenging. Epidemiological evidence shows that 2019-nCoV can be transmitted from person to person among close contacts possibly through respiratory droplets. The acute respiratory infection has an incubation period of 2–۱۴ days before any symptoms show. Preliminary data report 11% lethality among hospitalized patients.16 At the time of this manuscript’s authorship, there was no specific medicine or vaccine for coronavirus 2019-nCoV.17,18 According to the cases identified in Macau, the impact of 2019-CoV on human health appears to be mild, and the first patient with the confirmed diagnosis had full recovery and been discharged on February 6, 2020