COVID-19 pandemic: A review based on current evidence

In December 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2, a novel coronavirus, initiated an outbreak of pneumonia from Wuhan in China, which rapidly spread worldwide. The clinical characteristics of the disease range from asymptomatic cases or mild symptoms, which include nonspecific sympto...

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Published inIndian journal of pharmacology Vol. 52; no. 2; pp. 117 - 129
Main Authors Mahalmani, Vidya, Mahendru, Dhruv, Semwal, Ankita, Kaur, Sukhmeet, Kaur, Harpinder, Sarma, Phulen, Prakash, Ajay, Medhi, Bikash
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Pondicherry Medknow Publications and Media Pvt. Ltd 01.03.2020
Medknow Publications & Media Pvt. Ltd
Wolters Kluwer - Medknow
Subjects
Angiotensin II
China
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Disease transmission
Epidemics
Health aspects
India
Pandemics
Pneumonia
Respiratory failure
Review
Severe acute respiratory syndrome
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
China
India
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Summary:In December 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2, a novel coronavirus, initiated an outbreak of pneumonia from Wuhan in China, which rapidly spread worldwide. The clinical characteristics of the disease range from asymptomatic cases or mild symptoms, which include nonspecific symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, headache, and nasal congestion to severe cases such as pneumonia, respiratory failure demanding mechanical ventilation to multi-organ failure, sepsis, and death. As the transmission rate is quite alarming, we require an effective therapeutic strategy to treat symptomatic patients and adopt the preventive measures in order to contain the infection and prevent community transmission. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a public health emergency of international concern, hence repurposing of the drugs is an attractive and a feasible option because PK/PD profile, toxicity profile, and drug interactions are already known. This review emphasizes on the different aspects of COVID-19 such as the epidemiology, etiopathogenesis, diagnosis, and preventive measures to be adopted in order to fight this pandemic. It also highlights upon the ethics preparedness and challenges faced by a developing country like India during such an outbreak. The review focuses on the various approaches adopted till date for developing effective therapeutic strategies including combination of drugs, vaccine therapy, and convalescent plasma therapy to combat this viral outbreak.
ISSN:0253-7613
1998-3751
DOI:10.4103/ijp.IJP_310_20