Alwahaibi Nasar, Al-Maskari Muna, Al-Dhahli Buthaina, Al-Issaei Halima, Al-Bahlani Shadia
Allied Health Sciences Department, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.
J Infect Dev Ctries. 2020 Nov 30;14(11):1238-1245. doi: 10.3855/jidc.13270.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a rapidly spreading disease worldwide. It is a real test for all health authorities including Arab countries. In this review, we aimed to assess the prevalence of COVID-19 in the Arab world. In addition, to compare the findings of this study with other top affected countries.
We searched for official websites from the Ministries of Health and other official sources in all 22 Arab countries. Medline, Science Direct and Google Scholar websites were also used to search for COVID-19, 2019 novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 and coronavirus. The time period was from 1 January 2020 to 31 May 2020.
As of May 31, 2020, COVID-19 has caused 290,428 confirmed cases, 3,696 deaths and 157,886 cured cases in all Arab countries. In terms of confirmed cases, Saudi Arabia followed by Qatar, UAE, Kuwait and Egypt have the highest reported cases. However, the total number of deaths was dominant in Egypt, followed by Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and UAE. In comparison to other non-Arab countries and confirmed cases, Arab countries come fourth after USA, Brazil and Russia. In terms of death, the Arab world is not listed as the top ten affected countries as only scored eight deaths per million have been recorded.
Most Arab countries took some serious early steps to minimize the outbreak of COVID-19. At the moment, controlling the source of infection, the route of transmission and taking care of infected patients are the main challenges for health authorities in all Arab countries.
2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）是一种在全球迅速传播的疾病。这对包括阿拉伯国家在内的所有卫生当局都是一次真正的考验。在本综述中，我们旨在评估COVID-19在阿拉伯世界的流行情况。此外，将本研究的结果与其他受影响最严重的国家进行比较。
我们搜索了所有22个阿拉伯国家卫生部的官方网站和其他官方来源。还利用Medline、Science Direct和谷歌学术网站搜索COVID-19、2019新型冠状病毒、SARS-CoV-2和冠状病毒。时间段为2020年1月1日至2020年5月31日。
截至2020年5月31日，COVID-19在所有阿拉伯国家已导致290428例确诊病例、3696例死亡和157886例治愈病例。在确诊病例方面，沙特阿拉伯之后是卡塔尔、阿联酋、科威特和埃及报告的病例数最高。然而，死亡总数在埃及占主导地位，其次是阿尔及利亚、沙特阿拉伯、苏丹和阿联酋。与其他非阿拉伯国家及确诊病例相比（此处英文表述有误，应是与其他非阿拉伯国家的确诊病例相比），阿拉伯国家排在第四，仅次于美国、巴西和俄罗斯。在死亡方面，阿拉伯世界未被列为受影响最严重的十大国家，因为每百万人口仅记录到8例死亡。
大多数阿拉伯国家早期采取了一些严肃措施以尽量减少COVID-19的爆发。目前，控制传染源、传播途径以及照顾感染患者是所有阿拉伯国家卫生当局面临的主要挑战。
