The healthcare and pharmaceutical vulnerability emerging from the new Coronavirus outbreak
Daniele Leonardi Vinci, Carlo Polidori, Piera Polidori
Abstract
With a constantly increasing number of infected people world-wide,1 the COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) outbreak risks becoming a pandemic emergency, and for this reason, on 28 February 2020 the WHO upgraded the global risk of the coronavirus outbreak to ‘very high’.2 As many studies have shown, in the first phase of the onset of 2019-nCoV there is an exponential curve of infection with a reproduction number (R) ranging from 2 to 5,3 an indication that the spread of the virus cannot spontaneously decrease. A significant reduction in these R values can possibly be achieved by implementing specific containment actions, according to the results of a study of the evolution of the infections detected in China.4 The spread of the virus is favoured by its ability to be transmitted by asymptomatic patients,5 a particularly grave consideration, given that the currently estimated incubation period extends from 2 to 12 days.6 Furthermore, the easiest screening methods based on the execution of a nasopharyngeal swab displayed false negative results in both asymptomatic and symptomatic patients,7 making it more complex to intercept possible infected subjects, especially before a clinical manifestation of the infection. Since its onset in Europe, the 2019-nCoV emergency has been addressed by implementing social containment measures. This is particularly true in Italy, the first European country struck by an important 2019-nCoV outbreak. On 4 March 2020 the national government approved a series of … Correspondence to Dr Carlo Polidori, Experimental medicine and Public health, University of Camerino, Camerino 62032, Italy; carlo.polidori{at}unicam.it