2019 CORONAVIRUS: What are the implications for cardiology?

It is the third time, in recent decades, that a zoonotic coronavirus has crossed species to infect human beings. Seventeen years ago, an outbreak of a virus whose RNA sequences closely resemble those of a virus that silently circulates in bats – the so-called “SARS-CoV” – caused severe acute respiratory syndrome with a fatality rate of 9 to 11%. A few years later (2012), the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus – the so-called “MERS-CoV” – had a fatality rate of 34%. For both viruses, age and coexisting conditions such as diabetes or heart disease were independent predictors of adverse outcome.