Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on management of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases in Morocco

Abstract

The new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic originated from Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019 [1] and has now rapidly spread over the world. This pandemic is the defining global health crisis of our time and the greatest threat we have faced during this century. As a highly contagious virus, the infections rapidly spread globally; with the most affected regions being the USA, South-East Asia, Europe and Eastern Mediterranean. The African continent is less affected but a gradual increase in cases has been noted since two months ago in several African countries including Morocco. According to the World Health Organizations' (WHO) data, in globally, in 19^th September 2020, there have been 30,369,778 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 948,795 deaths [2]. To date, in the absence of any specific treatment, our knowledge of the disease is better known but is subject to rapid change. This has led to the prompt development of clinical patient risk stratification tools to aid in determining the need for testing, isolation, monitoring, ventilator support and disposition.