Epidemiology, virology, clinical features, diagnosis, and treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection

Abstract

Since December 2019, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has emerged and spread quickly worldwide. The disease is generally mild in adult people but in any with comorbidities may proceed to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), pneumonia, and multi-organ dysfunction. By performing molecular tests on respiratory secretions can diagnose the virus. Elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) and normal/low white cell counts are common laboratory diagnoses of COVID-19 while the tomographic chest scan is usually irregular for many infected people. Some patients progress to respiratory failure, pneumonia, and finally death by the end of the first week of illness because of the sharp rise in inflammatory cytokines such as IL7, IL2, GCSF, IL10, MIP1A, MCP1, IP10, and TNFα. Various approaches to the COVID- 19 are being performed by scientists. Use of chemical medical drugs that are effective for other viral infections. Among them, remdesivir was approved by FDA on 1th May 2020 because of its impact to treat patients. Also, several studies have revealed that many Chinese herbal remedies have a remarkable impact on the healing process when simultaneously were used along with pharmacological drugs. In the meantime, many efforts have been made to produce an effective vaccine, and so far, the Ad5-vectored COVID-19 vaccine has been successful and has entered phase 2 in the human trial. The current review focus on epidemiology, virology, clinical features, diagnosis, and available treatment of coronavirus that might assist researchers and clinicians in establishing action options for timely against this infection.