Coronavirus Disease Pandemic Is a Real Challenge for Brazil

摘要

In December 2019, a cluster of pneumonia cases of unknown etiology was reported in Wuhan,China (1). On January 7, a novel coronavirus was identified from the throat swab sample of apatient (2), and by January 2020, the virus had been isolated and sequenced (3). The new viruswas subsequently named SARS-CoV-2/human/Wuhan/X1/2019 (SARS-CoV-2) (4). On March 11,2020, the WHO announced that the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, designated COVID-19, shouldbe considered a global pandemic (5). By May 03, 2020, there were already 3,349,786 confirmedcases of contamination and 238,628 deaths throughout almost the whole world (6). This firstpandemic of the twenty-first century places unprecedented pressure on societies and healthcaresystems around the world. As pointed out by Jones in a recent commentary, “a history of epidemicsoffers considerable advice, but only if people know the history and respond with wisdom” (7).