Infectious Diseases and HIV Conference

Late in the year 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) shot into fame as a global health concern, occasioned by the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.

This disease spread fast all over the world, turning into a pandemic that was seriously affecting the daily lives, systems of healthcare, and economies.

It is highly infectious for its mode of spread primarily through respiratory droplets and aerosols. Symptoms range from mild illness of the respiratory type to severe pneumonia; some cases, after passing these complications, can last longer or result in death.

The clinical presentation of COVID-19 presents very diversely. Common symptoms include fever, cough, fatigue, and loss of taste or smell but severe presentations will include difficulty with breathing, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and even multiorgan failure.

Certain groups are at high risk for severe illness; these include the elderly and anyone who has been underlining medical conditions. Public health measures have involved a mix of mechanisms that include distancing, mask use, testing, contact tracing, and rules for quarantine.

Vaccine development and its distribution have been important for softening the blow of the disease and breaking up cases of outbreaks. These vaccines can be given in different forms, such as mRNA, viral vectors, and protein subunit-based formulations, that have been approved to be deployed all around the earth, and they provide protection against severe disease complications.

In the face of all these new advances, newly emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants will be new challenges to continuing the management of the pandemic. A few of them carry enhanced transmissibility and escape from neutralization by antibodies that were induced by prior infection or vaccination, thus requiring new vaccines or booster doses.

Again, long-term effects known as ""long COVID"" and the development of new antiviral therapies continue to be studied.

This session will take an in-depth look at COVID-19, including its virology, mode of transmission, response from the public health side, development of vaccines, and practices to be put in place for current and future surges.

It will update participants on lessons learned from this pandemic and preparedness measures for emerging infections.