The outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019: update on the clinical
characteristics and treatment strategies.
Abstract
In December 2019, with the outbreak of the unidentified pneumonia, a
novel coronavirus was confirmed to be accountable for this disease and
aroused great attention around the entire world. The World Health
Organization (WHO) officially named the novel coronavirus as SARS-CoV-2
and the pneumonia of unknown origin as Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19).
At present, COVID-19 has become an unprecedented global health crisis,
with over 6 million confirmed cases and 350,000 deaths worldwide. The
main manifestations are usually fever, cough, fatigues, breathlessness,
and among others. To date, specific antiviral agents against the
SARS-CoV-2 are not available. Extensive measures to reduce
person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 have been implemented to
control the current outbreak. In this review, we detail current evidence
and understanding of the etiology, epidemiology, clinical
characteristics, treatment of COVID-19, which may provide a reference
for future studies and help in the prevention and control of the
COVID-19 epidemic.