'Micro-terrorism': COVID-19 makes the horrible face of microbiology

ABSTRACT

Micro-terrorism! We coin this term to show the horrible face of microbiology in a way similar to the current widespread terrorism throughout the world. Throughout the ages, tiny organisms were the immediate cause of devastating epidemics that killed hundreds of millions of the inhabitants of the planet. Corona virus disease-19 (COVID-19) is a prominent milestone in the history of microbiology. Historically, microbiology witnessed prominent milestones from the discoveries of Antoni Philips van Leeuwenhoek and Louis Pasteur to the development of antibiotics in the first half of the twentieth century. Nowadays we live a new milestone in microbiology history. From the public point of view, it is astonishing that a tiny unseen organism could produce such a huge transition in the history of the world. Extra jeopardy is that the COVID-19 patient put his contacts at work and household members at a real risk of rapidly transmitting the disease all over the world. © 2020 The author (s). Published by Zagazig University.