Public Health Perspectives and Manifestations of Covid-19

Paraphrasing from common parlance, “a virus’ name precedes it”. Due to the name of its causative organism; most would consider COVID-19 as a primarily respiratory illness. This is substantiated by the readily obvious respiratory symptoms and the popular use of facemasks as a means of prevention.COVID–19 presents as a respiratory disease with a multi-systemic representation, multi-sectorial importance and a multidimensional impact on humanity.

This chapter brings to bear, the public health manifestations of COVID-19 providing an overview of the anthropologic, epidemiologic, Global Health, etiologic, pathogenetic, diagnostic and health system concerns and perspectives since the virus was discovered in the last days of 2019.