Illuminating COVID-19 lung disease through autopsy studies.

Abstract

Since the start of the twenty-first century, three zoonotic coronaviruses (CoVs) have caused disease outbreaks in humans. Severe acute respiratory syndrome-CoV (SARS-CoV) emerged in China as a pneumonia outbreak from 2002 to 2003 with a mortality rate of 9.6% and nearly 800 confirmed deaths [1]. Cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome-CoV (MERS-CoV) first appeared as respiratory disease in Saudi Arabia and Jordan during 2012 and it remains endemic in Saudi Arabia and the Arabian peninsula with an estimated mortality rate of 34.3% and 858 confirmed fatalities [2].