Coronavirus, diagnosis and epidemiological strategies against COVID-19 in Mexico

This new decade has started ominously. The year 2020 began with the reports from Wuhan, China, of people seeking medical attention for viral pneumonia whose evolution deviated from known acute respiratory infections. One of the first doctors to raise the alarm, ophthalmologist Li Wenliang, noticed the high number of patients with similar symptoms, and in December 2019 mentioned to his colleagues that the disease could be caused by a new virus. On February 7, 2020, Dr. Wenliang died from constant exposure to this novel infectious agent. Ten days later, the deaths of other doctors, Dr. Liu Zhiming and Dr. Xu Depu who was director of the Ezhou City Medical Hospital in Hubei, was reported, together with that of many patients. Since then, and according to the accounting kept by Johns Hopkins University, up to March 30 there have been more than 750,000 confirmed infections and more than 36,000 deaths worldwide, without signs of a slowdown in the rate of infection. In this article we address various questions that arise when an event of this magnitude occurs, for example: What happens during viral infection? How does a previously harmless virus become a danger to man? How can you tell if the new virus was intentionally manipulated or not? Why is it important to know if someone is infected? What does the clinical test consist of? What type of epidemiological surveillance is carried out in Mexico?