Umakanthan Srikanth, Chattu Vijay Kumar, Ranade Anu V, Das Debasmita, Basavarajegowda Abhishekh, Bukelo Maryann
Department of Paraclinical Sciences, Faculty of Medical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies.
Department of Medicine, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5G2C4, Canada.
AIMS Public Health. 2021 Feb 1;8(1):137-153. doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2021011. eCollection 2021.
COVID-19 is caused by SARS-CoV-2, which originated in Wuhan, Hubei province, Central China, in December 2019 and since then has spread rapidly, resulting in a severe pandemic. The infected patient presents with varying non-specific symptoms requiring an accurate and rapid diagnostic tool to detect SARS-CoV-2. This is followed by effective patient isolation and early treatment initiation ranging from supportive therapy to specific drugs such as corticosteroids, antiviral agents, antibiotics, and the recently introduced convalescent plasma. The development of an efficient vaccine has been an on-going challenge by various nations and research companies. A literature search was conducted in early December 2020 in all the major databases such as Medline/PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar search engines. The findings are discussed in three main thematic areas namely diagnostic approaches, therapeutic options, and potential vaccines in various phases of development. Therefore, an effective and economical vaccine remains the only retort to combat COVID-19 successfully to save millions of lives during this pandemic. However, there is a great scope for further research in discovering cost-effective and safer therapeutics, vaccines and strategies to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 prevention and treatment services.
2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）由严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）引起，该病毒于2019年12月起源于中国中部湖北省武汉市，此后迅速传播，导致了一场严重的大流行。受感染患者会出现各种非特异性症状，这就需要一种准确、快速的诊断工具来检测SARS-CoV-2。接下来是对患者进行有效的隔离，并尽早开始治疗，治疗方法包括支持性治疗以及使用特定药物，如皮质类固醇、抗病毒药物、抗生素和最近引入的康复期血浆。开发一种有效的疫苗一直是各国和研究公司面临的持续挑战。2020年12月初，在所有主要数据库（如医学在线/医学期刊数据库（Medline/PubMed）、科学引文索引（Web of Science）、Scopus数据库以及谷歌学术搜索引擎）中进行了文献检索。研究结果在三个主要主题领域进行了讨论，即诊断方法、治疗选择以及处于不同开发阶段的潜在疫苗。因此，一种有效且经济的疫苗仍然是成功抗击2019冠状病毒病、在这场大流行期间拯救数百万人生命的唯一对策。然而，在发现具有成本效益且更安全的治疗方法、疫苗以及确保公平获得2019冠状病毒病预防和治疗服务的策略方面，仍有很大的进一步研究空间。
