Comparison of Pattern and Outcome of COVID-19 in Pakistan and Its Neighboring Countries

Abstract

The world is facing a severe and acute public health emergency due to the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic. How individual countries respond in the coming weeks will be critical in influencing the trajectory of national epidemics. The mortality and morbidity rates reported so far and healthcare demands anticipated, are based on data from China and other high-income countries; marked variations in underlying health conditions of general public, capacity and strength of healthcare systems and vision of policy makers will likely result in different patterns in low income settings. This review is focusing on variations in pattern and outcome of SARS-COV-2 in Asian region in comparison with some neighboring countries. In conclusion, the aged population with co-morbidities has deadly outcome. As asymptomatic carriers are source of transmission of disease to vulnerable subjects, therefore, we need to continuously develop, monitor and implement prophylactic and therapeutic strategies to combat this deadly virus over the next months to years. A possible explanation of different outcome in different country can be ascribed by the presence of comorbidities, average age of population that are infected with virus and the use of some drugs that induce the cell expression of receptors for the virus.