Coronavirus: Prevention is Better than Cure

  • Dr. Muhammad  Liaquat Raza

Abstract

One of the hottest topics as well as alarming situation of the 2020 which caught the immediate attention globally, is sudden out-break of “coronavirus infection”. Initially started in Wuhan, China and gradually spread to other countries as well. According to recent report by Chinese Health authorities, the number of people infected has been more than forty thousand and the death toll climbed to 900 (this number is more than SARS epidemic of 2002-2003).

World Health Organization (WHO) put this spread at highest alarm level. Various Asian, European as well as North American countries have reported patient’s infection from coronavirus. Human to human transmission is reported in USA. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a safe distance (> 6 feet) from infected person can restrict the transmission to next person. There is debate going on how the first person infected from 2019nCoV. According to one opinion, it’s transmitted from bats into human who has eaten them but another group is skeptical about it.

Coronavirus belongs to family of viruses involved in the respiratory infection causing acute respiratory symptoms. Many research groups are now actively working on it, genome of the virus has been engineered and recently a research group reported that came up with the vaccine (currently in pre-clinical phase).

CDC has developed RT-PCR based diagnostic tests and recently this week FDA has approved the CDC test kit for diagnosing 2019-nCoV. CDC has provided several safety features from safe and secure from the outbreak of 2019-nCoV. These guidelines include following points:

  • People should take flu vaccine.
  • Health care provider dealing with infected person should take vigilant care.
  • People in contact with patients should immediately visit doctor once respiratory symptoms appear.

Now, taken into consideration of another dimension is the religious perspective, Islam has clear rulings about which food items are consumable and which are forbidden. According to Islamic principle, eating insects, bats, and snakes is not permissible. Following strategy of prevention is better than cure, if we restrict ourselves from consuming everything rather than only clear and safe food. We may safe from not only nCoV but many other diseases. Likewise, Islam also emphasizes on hygiene. If we follow the strategy of Islam, we prevent our health and secure lives.

Author Biography

Dr. Muhammad  Liaquat Raza

Chief Editor, RADS-JPPS 
Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Published
2020-01-30
Section
Editors Note