Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 May 28:8:216.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.00216. eCollection 2020.

COVID-19: Emergence, Spread, Possible Treatments, and Global Burden

Raghuvir Keni  1 , Anila Alexander  2 , Pawan Ganesh Nayak  1 , Jayesh Mudgal  1 , Krishnadas Nandakumar  1
Affiliations
Review

COVID-19: Emergence, Spread, Possible Treatments, and Global Burden

Raghuvir Keni et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

The Coronavirus (CoV) is a large family of viruses known to cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to acute respiratory tract infection. The severity of the infection may be visible as pneumonia, acute respiratory syndrome, and even death. Until the outbreak of SARS, this group of viruses was greatly overlooked. However, since the SARS and MERS outbreaks, these viruses have been studied in greater detail, propelling the vaccine research. On December 31, 2019, mysterious cases of pneumonia were detected in the city of Wuhan in China's Hubei Province. On January 7, 2020, the causative agent was identified as a new coronavirus (2019-nCoV), and the disease was later named as COVID-19 by the WHO. The virus spread extensively in the Wuhan region of China and has gained entry to over 210 countries and territories. Though experts suspected that the virus is transmitted from animals to humans, there are mixed reports on the origin of the virus. There are no treatment options available for the virus as such, limited to the use of anti-HIV drugs and/or other antivirals such as Remdesivir and Galidesivir. For the containment of the virus, it is recommended to quarantine the infected and to follow good hygiene practices. The virus has had a significant socio-economic impact globally. Economically, China is likely to experience a greater setback than other countries from the pandemic due to added trade war pressure, which have been discussed in this paper.

Keywords: 2019-nCoV; COVID-19; SARS; SARS-CoV-2; coronavirus; pandemic.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Timeline of COVID-19 progression (–32).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Total confirmed COVID 19 cases as of May 2020 (33).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Case fatality rate by age in selected countries as of April 2020 (33).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Case fatality rate in selected countries (33).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Population share above 70 years of age (33).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. McIntosh K, Dees JH, Becker WB, Kapikian AZ, Chanock RM. Recovery in tracheal organ cultures of novel viruses from patients with respiratory disease. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. (1967) 57:933–40. 10.1073/pnas.57.4.933 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Esper F, Weibel C, Ferguson D, Landry ML, Kahn JS. Evidence of a novel human coronavirus that is associated with respiratory tract disease in infants and young children. J Infect Dis. (2005) 191:492–8. 10.1086/428138 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Stöhr K. A multicentre collaboration to investigate the cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome. Lancet. (2003) 361:1730–3. 10.1016/S0140-6736(03)13376-4 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Peiris JSM, Lai ST, Poon LLM, Guan Y, Yam LYC, Lim W, et al. . Coronavirus as a possible cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome. Lancet. (2003) 361:1319–25. 10.1016/S0140-6736(03)13077-2 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zumla A, Hui DS, Perlman S. Middle East respiratory syndrome. Lancet. (2015) 386:995–1007. 10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60454-8 - DOI - PMC - PubMed