IJSR International Journal of Scientific Research 2277 - 8179 Indian Society for Health and Advanced Research ijsr-9-8-26469 Original Research Paper Risk Factors and Co-morbidities Associated with COVID-19 Sangeeta Dr. August 2020 9 8 01 02 ABSTRACT

The rapid outbreak of Corona–virus disease 2019 (Covid–19), has recently become a public health emergency of international concern. Corona–virus arose from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS–CoV–2) infection1. SARS–CoV–2 first attacked the Wuhan city of China in December 2019, since then there has been no arrest to the spread of the virus. It has spread in 215 countries all over the world to date. Coronavirus is an enveloped, non–segmented, single–stranded RNA virus2. At present, six human coronaviruses have been identified. And the SARS–CoV–2, which isolated from the lower respiratory tract of pneumonia patients with unknown causes in Wuhan, is recognized as the seventh human coronaviruses.3 The most common symptoms of COVID–19 are fever, dry cough, difficulty in breathing, and tiredness. Other symptoms that are less common and may affect some patients include aches and pains, nasal congestion, headache, conjunctivitis, sore throat, diarrhoea, loss of taste or smell, or a rash on skin or discoloration of fingers or toes4. Findings suggest that patients with co–morbidities have more significant disease severity compared with those without any co–morbidity. Further, a higher number of co–morbidities correlate with greater disease severity of Covid–19. Therefore, patients with co–existing co–morbidities are more likely to have poorer baseline well–being, and both the category and number of co–morbidities should be taken into account when predicting the prognosis in patients with COVID–195,6.