COVID-19 as an Acute Inflammatory Disease

Abstract

The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the virus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has created an unprecedented global crisis for the infrastructure sectors, including economic, political, healthcare, education, and research systems. Although over 90% of infected individuals are asymptomatic or manifest noncritical symptoms and will recover from the infection, those individuals presenting with critical symptoms are in urgent need of effective treatment options. Emerging data related to mechanism of severity and potential therapies for patients presenting with severe symptoms are scattered and therefore require a comprehensive analysis to focus research on developing effective therapeutics. A critical literature review suggests that the severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with dysregulation of inflammatory immune responses, which in turn inhibits the development of protective immunity to the infection. Therefore, the use of therapeutics that modulate inflammation without compromising the adaptive immune response could be the most effective therapeutic strategy.

Figure 1.. Gender-disaggregated cases of death.

Average of COVID-19 fatality in men and women reported from 46 countries as of April 29, 2020 is shown. Statistical analysis was performed using two-tailed Student’s t-test. The numbers are updated frequently by the Global Health 5050 at http://globalhealth5050.org/covid19/.