Prevention and Control Measures in Coronavirus Disease-۱۹ Pandemic

In infectious diseases and outbreaks, prevention is better than cure (۱). Several effective measures have been proposed to curb the coronavirus disease-۱۹ pandemic. The World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have provided recommendations and hygienic preventive and control measures in the formats of reports and guidelines. Table ۱ presents some of the practical social controlling measures that led to the control of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in ۲۰۰۳, Beijing, China (۲). In the SARS epidemic, local and military health workers had a key role in ending the outbreak (۲). Accordingly, similar controlling measures can be implemented to curb other outbreaks including ۲۰۱۹-nCoV.Although the transmissibility of SARS is lower than ۲۰۱۹-nCoV, the SARS outbreak (۲۰۰۳) involved many countries before ending (۳). These outbreaks have some lessons to be learned for further similar outbreaks. The super spread of SARS and ۲۰۱۹-nCoV outbreaks were associated with favourable conditions for transmission. Both outbreaks occurred during the traditional Chinese Spring Festival. This festival was held from January ۱۷ to February ۲۳, as well as January ۱۰ to February ۱۸ in ۲۰۰۳ and ۲۰۲۰ with nearly ۱.۸۲ and ۳.۱۱ billion travellers countrywide, respectively. Wuhan with ۱۱ million citizens is the center of this traditional spring (۴). Some mistakes might be repeated given that countries have made significant progress in scientific and technical aspects compared to the SARS outbreak in ۲۰۰۳. Current responses to the outbreak must be much more decisive and scientific compared to the ۲۰۰۳ outbreak of SARS (۵)...