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
. 2021 Apr 29;62(1):E13-E24.
doi: 10.15167/2421-4248/jpmh2021.62.1.1680. eCollection 2021 Mar.

Clinical features of COVID-19 and SARS epidemics. A literature review

Antonella Zizza  1 , Virginia Recchia  1 , Alessandra Aloisi  2 , Marcello Guido  3
Affiliations
Review

Clinical features of COVID-19 and SARS epidemics. A literature review

Antonella Zizza et al. J Prev Med Hyg. .

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2, responsible for the current pandemic, is a novel strain of the Coronaviridae family, which has infected humans as a result of the leap to a new species. It causes an atypical pneumonia similar to that caused by SARS-CoV in 2003. SARS-CoV-2 has currently infected more than 9,200,000 people and caused almost 480,000 deaths worldwide. Although SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV have similar phylogenetic and pathogenetic characteristics, they show important differences in clinical manifestations. We have reviewed the recent literature comparing the characteristics of the two epidemics and highlight their peculiar aspects. An analysis of all signs and symptoms of 3,365 SARS patients and 23,280 COVID-19 patients as well as of the comorbidities has been carried out. A total of 17 and 75 studies regarding patients with SARS and COVID-19, respectively, were included in the analysis. The analysis revealed an overlap of some symptoms between the two infections. Unlike SARS patients, COVID-19 patients have developed respiratory, neurological and gastrointestinal symptoms, and, in a limited number of subjects, symptoms involving organs such as skin and subcutaneous tissue, kidneys, cardiovascular system, liver and eyes. This analysis was conducted in order to direct towards an early identification of the infection, a suitable diagnostic procedure and the adoption of appropriate containment measures.

Keywords: COVID-19; Clinical features; SARS; SARS-CoV; SARS-CoV-2.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest statement The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

    1. WHO. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Situation Report - 157. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2020. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/2... (accessed on 26 June 2020).
    1. Najafimehr H, Mohamed Ali K, Safari S, Yousefifard M, Hosseini M. Estimation of basic reproduction number for COVID-19 and the reasons for its differences. Int J Clin Pract 2020;74:e13518. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcp.13518 10.1111/ijcp.13518 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. WHO. Consensus document on the epidemiology of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2003. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/70863 (accessed on 16 June 2020).
    1. Peeri NC, Shrestha N, Rahman MS, Zaki R, Tan Z, Bibi S, Baghbanzadeh M, Aghamohammadi N, Zhang W, Haque U. The SARS, MERS and novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemics, the newest and biggest global health threats: what lessons have we learned? Int J Epidemiol 2020;49:717-26. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa033 10.1093/ije/dyaa033 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wu Z, McGoogan JM. Characteristics of and Important Lessons From the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Outbreak in China: Summary of a Report of 72 314 Cases From the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. JAMA 2020;323:1239-42. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.2648 10.1001/jama.2020.2648 - DOI - PubMed