The outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019:update on the characteristics
and prevention strategies
Abstract
In December 2019, with the outbreak of the unidentified pneumonia in
Wuhan, China, a novel coronavirus was confirmed to be accountable for
this disease and aroused great attention of the entire world. World
Health Organization (WHO) officially named the novel coronavirus as
SARS-CoV-2 and the unknown pneumonia as Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19).
Up to April 13, 2020, there have been 83696 confirmed cases in China and
1837079 cases were totally confirmed in 209 countries outside of China
with 119138 fatalities. 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 symptoms and current strategies on diagnosis, treatment, and
prevention of COVID-19, which may provide a reference for future studies
and help for the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic.