۱٫ Introduction

۲٫ Methods

۳٫ Results

۴٫ Discussion

References

Abstract

Introduction: Sources describing the global burden of emerging diseases accurately are still limited. We reviewed coronavirus infections reported by ProMED and assessed the reliability of the data retrieved compared to published reports. We evaluated the effectiveness of ProMED as a source of epidemiological data on coronavirus. Methods: Using the keyword “coronavirus” in the ProMED search engine, we reviewed all the information from the reports and collected data using a structured form, including year, country, gender, occupation, the number of infected individuals, and the number of fatal cases.

Results: We identified 109 entries reported between February 29, 2000 and January 22, 2020. A total of 966 cases were reported, with death reported in 188 cases, suggesting an overall case fatality rate (CFR) of 19.5%. Of 70 cases for which the gender was reported, 47 (67.1%) were male. Most of the cases were reported from China, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, with reports from other countries, including imported cases in Europe and North America.

Conclusions: Internet-based reporting systems such as ProMED are useful to gather information and synthesize knowledge on emerging infections. Although certain areas need to be improved, ProMED provided useful information about coronaviruses especially during outbreaks.

Introduction

Coronaviruses are enveloped non-segmented positive-sense RNA viruses belonging to the family Coronaviridae (subfamily Orthocoronavirinae) and the order Nidovirales and broadly distributed in humans and other mammals [1,2], including four genuses, Alphacoronavirus, Betacoronavirus, Deltacoronavirus, and Gammacoronavirus. Although most human coronavirus infections are mild, the previous epidemics of two betacoronaviruses, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) [3–۷] and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) [8–۱۱], have caused more than 10,000 cumulative cases in the past two decades, with mortality rates of 10% for SARS-CoV and 37% for MERS-CoV. The coronaviruses already identified might only be the tip of the iceberg, with potentially more novel and severe zoonotic events to be revealed [1]. Now, the 2019 novel CoV (2019-nCoV) have led to more than 17,400 cases and 362 death till February 2, 2020.

The global burden of coronavirus needs to be determined. In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) held its annual review of the Blueprint List of Priority Diseases, where Coronaviruses were considered and included. These diseases, given their potential to cause a public health emergency and the absence of efficacious drug and vaccine, are considered to need accelerated research and development [12]. Given the current situation of the 2019nCoV in China and multiple countries in different continents affected, the WHO declared this outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on Thursday, January 30, 2020 [13,14].