Emerging Pharmacotherapy for COVID-19 Treatment: An Integrative Review

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 has become the global pandemic incapacitating the health systems and demanding investigation of possible pharmacotherapeutic options against SARS CoV-2. Although social distancing, hand sanitizing and supportive care remain as the preventive and management measures of COVID-19, clinical efficacy of various therapeutic agents is being tried out simultaneously to reduce the mortality associated with the disease. Objective: To ascertain the potential drugs/treatment for COVID 19 from the published literature across the world from its origin until June 2020. Methods: A literature search was done in CINAHL, Pub Med, Google Scholar, Science Direct, Springer, Wiley, EEEE, and Medline computerized repositories for complete texts from December 2019 until June 2020. The search terms used were COVID-19, treatment, antimalarial, antibiotics, antiretroviral, antiviral, plasma, immunoglobulin, heparin and immunosuppressant. The inclusion criteria adopted in the study were original research articles with current treatment process and potential drugs used in COVID 19 patients, primary data, published in English and full article available for free download. Results: There is no absolute single pharmacotherapeutic measure identified till date to cure this disease. The studies reviewed reported that the clinical improvement of the disease could be due to the result of other supportive measures and the results are inconclusive as the disease is impacted by various coexisting medical conditions. More clinical trials at large scales are needed to tackle this crisis at the earliest. Conclusion: Inventing a new vaccine or drug against coronavirus may take years to fully develop. However, clinicians are trying to treat this disease with already prescribed drugs for other diseases like H1N1, malaria, HIV, and SARS. It is important to note that there may be emergence of new clinical characteristics, treatment trials and outcome of COVID-19 as the disease evolves.