Abstract
SummaryWhat was initially a lung infection epidemic in the metropolitan area of Wuhan followed by a now contained extension to mainland China has now spread to all continents as a major pandemic with current hotspots in Europe and the USA. This minireview is an update of an earlier report on this novel coronavirus infection (Brüssow, 2020, Microb Biotech 13, 607). I am now summarizing the research literature published between end of February to mid‐April 2020.
Highlights
If milder cases are incorporated into that calculation, case fatality rates (CFR) were reduced to 1.4% for COVID19 patients, which is still substantially higher than that of the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic
RNA sequencing of lung washes demonstrated a median of four viral variants with single nucleotide changes within an individual patient, but only a single variant was transmitted to family members. (Shen et al, 2020b). This study reported another important observation: COVID-19 patients, when compared with bacterial pneumonia cases, lacked commensal bacteria in the lungs and showed nearly exclusively viral RNA
If one lesson is already clear to the author of these lines, it is that it is time to create the infrastructure for a World Health Organization worthy of its name
Summary
When analysing possible transmission routes by symptomatic, pre-symptomatic, or asymptomatic infected subjects or environmental transmission by fomites, model builders realized that SARS-CoV-2 spread is too fast to be contained by manual contact tracing They propose a contact-tracing App that warns people who came into close contact over a critical time to a person becoming virus-positive or symptomatic. (Shen et al, 2020b) This study reported another important observation: COVID-19 patients, when compared with bacterial pneumonia cases, lacked commensal bacteria in the lungs and showed nearly exclusively viral RNA. This indicates massive viral replication in the lung and the absence of a bacterial co-pathogen. This concept was developed for SARS, and the soluble ACE-2 protein has already undergone clinical safety trials, but it is unknown whether it has clinical efficacy (Monteil et al, 2020)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
