Incidence of the COVID-19 in Iraq – Implications for travellers

Authors

Maysaa Kadhim Al-Malkey, University of BaghdadFollow
Maitham Ahmed Al-Sammak, University of Baghdad and University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

2020

Citation

Al-Malkey MK, Al-Sammak MA, Incidence of the COVID-19 in Iraq –Implications for travellers, Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease (2020), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2020.101739.

Comments

© 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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Abstract

The first emerged Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) was in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China at the end of 2019, then spread to the rest of China [1], followed by the spread of the COVID-19 epidemics into the world caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) [2]. Many epidemiological assessments in different countries from Asia, Europe, and North America have been published [3]. Nevertheless, there are countries in the Middle East like Iraq, with a rapid increase in cases and a high number of deaths, with a lack of studies. It is worth noting that the Iraqi Foreign Ministry was working with Chinese authorities to evacuate the 30th Iraqi students with their families from the city of Wuhan, China to the capital Baghdad by February 5, 2020, the foreign ministry statement at that time noted that the Iraqi embassy in China had not recorded cases of infection among the students. They were quarantined for 14 days then declared free of COVID-19 infection and released by February 19, 2020. This briefing aims to register the reported cases by the governmental authorities including the incidence and the mortality rate of COVID-19 in Iraq under the hypothesis that, the imported cases were from Iran to other Middle East countries especially Iraq.