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All | Since 2019 | |
Citation | 5450 | 3969 |
h-index | 23 | 20 |
i10-index | 134 | 84 |
NOVEL CORONA VIRUS [COVID-19] - A RECENT OVERVIEW
Sagar Kishor Savale*
ABSTRACT Background: The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus-2 is a novel coronavirus belonging to the family Coronaviridae and is now known to be responsible for the outbreak of a series of recent acute atypical respiratory infections originating in Wuhan, China. The disease caused by this virus, termed coronavirus disease 19 or simply COVID-19, has rapidly spread throughout the world at an alarming pace and has been declared a pandemic by the WHO on March 11, 2020. In this review, an update on the pathophysiology, clinical presentation and the most recent management strategies for COVID-19 has been described. Materials and Methods: A search was conducted for literature and various articles/case reports from 1997 to 2020 in MEDLINE for the keywords coronavirus, SARS, Middle East respiratory syndrome and mRNA virus. Results and Conclusions: COVID-19 has now spread globally with increasing morbidity and mortality among all populations. In the absence of a proper and effective antibody test, the diagnosis is presently based on a reverse-transcription PCR of nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swab samples. The clinical spectrum of the disease presents in the form of a mild, moderate or severe illness. Most patients are either asymptomatic carriers who despite being without symptoms have the potential to be infectious to others coming in close contact, or have a mild influenza-like illness which cannot be differentiated from a simple upper respiratory tract infection. Moderate and severe cases require hospitalisation as well as intensive therapy which includes non-invasive as well as invasive ventilation, along with antipyretics, antivirals, antibiotics and steroids. Complicated cases may require treatment by immunomodulatory drugs and plasma exchange therapy and effective vaccine for COVID-19. Keywords: COVID-19, antivirals, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Covishield, Covaxin. [Download Article] [Download Certifiate] |