Abstract
With the onset of the novel coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19) that emerged from Wuhan in China, the need of the hour can be summarized into two groups. The first one is a potent vaccine as a prophylactic measure to prevent the virus from infecting people, and the second is a rapid diagnosis of the disease to help healthcare professionals and government authorities to plan and control the spread and provide effective care and treatment. This review delves into the latter, describing the COVID-19 and its treatment, including the race for an effective vaccine, and highlighting the role of serological testing in managing the pandemic since a well-designed study to understand mechanisms and serological correlations of protective immunity is crucial for rational clinical and public health policies. In conclusion, swift vaccination and response tactics, such as social distancing, hand hygiene, wearing of masks, and, if required, lockdown practices continue to be important in managing the pandemic while carefully monitoring any possible outbreak due to the variants.
Highlights
Coronaviruses (CoV) are a family of RNA viruses that typically cause mild respiratory disease in humans [1]
This review provides an overview of COVID-19, its causative agent, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-CoV-2, drugs, and prophylactic vaccines to combat the disease and discusses seroprevalence to highlight the significance of such assays in monitoring the spread and management of the pandemic
While antibody testing is crucial in the assessment of the SARS-CoV-2 exposure, infection, and potential immunity, detection of asymptomatic infection is critical for understanding the overall prevalence and infection potential of the COVID-19 and determining the rate of increased seroprevalence with the progress of the pandemic
Summary
Coronaviruses (CoV) are a family of RNA viruses that typically cause mild respiratory disease in humans [1]. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Jan 2020 report, there are seven coronaviruses known to infect humans, of which only MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV are routinely capable of causing severe respiratory infections. It is very urgent and important to continue exploring means and methods of monitoring spread and preventing the infection through various interventions that include the discovery of diagnostics, the development of drugs, and to be future-ready through the development of prophylactic vaccines. This review provides an overview of COVID-19, its causative agent, the SARS-CoV-2, drugs, and prophylactic vaccines to combat the disease and discusses seroprevalence to highlight the significance of such assays in monitoring the spread and management of the pandemic. Seroprevalence is the number of persons in a population who test positive for the SARS-CoV-2 based on serological antibody tests, often expressed as a percentage of the total population
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