The 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), commonly known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), was first revealed in late 2019 in Wuhan city, Hubei province, China. It was subsequently spread globally and thereby declared as a pandemic by WHO in March 2020. The disease causes severe acute respiratory illness and is highly contagious due to the fast-onward transmission. As of the mid of November 2020, the disease has affected 220 countries with more than 16 million active cases and 1.3 million deaths worldwide. Males, pregnant women, the elderly, immunosuppressed patients, and those with underlying medical conditions are more vulnerable to the disease than the general healthy population. Unfortunately, no definite treatment is available. Although remdesivir as an antiviral had been approved for use in those above 12 years of age and 40 kg weight group, it has been observed to be ineffective in large-scale SOLIDARITY trials by WHO. Moreover, dexamethasone has been found to increase the recovery rate of ventilated patients; oxygen and inhaled nitric oxide as a vasodilator have been given emergency expanded access. In addition, more than 57 clinical trials are being conducted for the development of the vaccines on various platforms. Two vaccines were found to be significantly promising in phase III results. It is concluded that till the approval of a specific treatment or development of a vaccine against this deadly disease, the preventive measures should be followed strictly to reduce the spread of the disease.
The 2019 novel coronavirus (n class="Species">2019-nCoV), commonly known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), was first revealed in late 2019 in Wuhan city, Hubei province, China. It was subsequently spread globally and thereby declared as a pandemic by WHO in March 2020. The disease causes severe acute respiratory illness and is highly contagious due to the fast-onward transmission. As of the mid of November 2020, the disease has affected 220 countries with more than 16 million active cases and 1.3 million deaths worldwide. Males, pregnant women, the elderly, immunosuppressed patients, and those with underlying medical conditions are more vulnerable to the disease than the general healthy population. Unfortunately, no definite treatment is available. Although remdesivir as an antiviral had been approved for use in those above 12 years of age and 40 kg weight group, it has been observed to be ineffective in large-scale SOLIDARITY trials by WHO. Moreover, dexamethasone has been found to increase the recovery rate of ventilated patients; oxygen and inhaled nitric oxide as a vasodilator have been given emergency expanded access. In addition, more than 57 clinical trials are being conducted for the development of the vaccines on various platforms. Two vaccines were found to be significantly promising in phase III results. It is concluded that till the approval of a specific treatment or development of a vaccine against this deadly disease, the preventive measures should be followed strictly to reduce the spread of the disease.
Authors: José Meneses Calderón; Ma Del Rocío Figueroa Flores; Leopoldo Paniagua Coria; Jesús Carlos Briones Garduño; Jazmín Meneses Figueroa; María José Vargas Contretas; Lilia De la Cruz Ávila; Salvador Díaz Meza; Reynaldo Ramírez Chacón; Srivatsan Padmanabhan; Hugo Mendieta Zerón Journal: J Infect Dev Ctries Date: 2020-09-30 Impact factor: 0.968
Authors: Hongchao Pan; Richard Peto; Ana-Maria Henao-Restrepo; Marie-Pierre Preziosi; Vasee Sathiyamoorthy; Quarraisha Abdool Karim; Marissa M Alejandria; César Hernández García; Marie-Paule Kieny; Reza Malekzadeh; Srinivas Murthy; K Srinath Reddy; Mirta Roses Periago; Pierre Abi Hanna; Florence Ader; Abdullah M Al-Bader; Almonther Alhasawi; Emma Allum; Athari Alotaibi; Carlos A Alvarez-Moreno; Sheila Appadoo; Abdullah Asiri; Pål Aukrust; Andreas Barratt-Due; Samir Bellani; Mattia Branca; Heike B C Cappel-Porter; Nery Cerrato; Ting S Chow; Najada Como; Joe Eustace; Patricia J García; Sheela Godbole; Eduardo Gotuzzo; Laimonas Griskevicius; Rasha Hamra; Mariam Hassan; Mohamed Hassany; David Hutton; Irmansyah Irmansyah; Ligita Jancoriene; Jana Kirwan; Suresh Kumar; Peter Lennon; Gustavo Lopardo; Patrick Lydon; Nicola Magrini; Teresa Maguire; Suzana Manevska; Oriol Manuel; Sibylle McGinty; Marco T Medina; María L Mesa Rubio; Maria C Miranda-Montoya; Jeremy Nel; Estevao P Nunes; Markus Perola; Antonio Portolés; Menaldi R Rasmin; Aun Raza; Helen Rees; Paula P S Reges; Chris A Rogers; Kolawole Salami; Marina I Salvadori; Narvina Sinani; Jonathan A C Sterne; Milena Stevanovikj; Evelina Tacconelli; Kari A O Tikkinen; Sven Trelle; Hala Zaid; John-Arne Røttingen; Soumya Swaminathan Journal: N Engl J Med Date: 2020-12-02 Impact factor: 91.245
Authors: Laura D Zambrano; Sascha Ellington; Penelope Strid; Romeo R Galang; Titilope Oduyebo; Van T Tong; Kate R Woodworth; John F Nahabedian; Eduardo Azziz-Baumgartner; Suzanne M Gilboa; Dana Meaney-Delman Journal: MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep Date: 2020-11-06 Impact factor: 17.586
Authors: Pradeesh Sivapalan; Charlotte Suppli Ulrik; Therese Sophie Lappere; Josefin Viktoria Eklöf; Saher Burhan Shaker; Uffe Christian Steinholtz Bødtger; Andrea Browatzki; Christian Niels Meyer; Ulla Møller Weinreich; Christian B Laursen; Tor Biering-Sørensen; Filip Krag Knop; Jens D Lundgren; Jens-Ulrik Stæhr Jensen Journal: Trials Date: 2020-10-20 Impact factor: 2.279
Authors: Mulong Du; Joe G N Garcia; Jason D Christie; Junyi Xin; Guoshuai Cai; Nuala J Meyer; Zhaozhong Zhu; Qianyu Yuan; Zhengdong Zhang; Li Su; Sipeng Shen; Xuesi Dong; Hui Li; John N Hutchinson; Paula Tejera; Xihong Lin; Meilin Wang; Feng Chen; David C Christiani Journal: Intensive Care Med Date: 2021-05-25 Impact factor: 41.787