SHORT REVIEW
COVID19 alert Do we know our enemy?
 
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1
Department of Respiratory Medicine, University General Hospital of Heraklion, Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Pneumonology, Medical School, University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, Greece
 
2
Interstitial Lung Disease Unit Royal Brompton Hospital, London, United Kingdom
 
3
Athens Medical Center and 1st Department of Respiratory Medicine, "Sotiria" Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
 
 
Pneumon 2020;33(1):25-27
 
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
SARS-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the etiologic agent of the new lung disease COVID-19 is closely related to SARS-CoV, and together with MERS-CoV are three new human coronaviruses that emerged in the last 20 years. Clinical presentations range from asymptomatic or mild symptoms to severe illness. The prevalent cause of mortality is pneumonia that progresses to ARDS. Such a devastating health burden worldwide has imposed intensive international scientific interest to be focused on the emergence of new therapeutic regimens. Pending the availability of a vaccine, there is a critical need to identify effective treatments and a number of clinical trials have been implemented worldwide. Trials are based on repurposed drugs that are already approved for other infections, have acceptable safety profiles or have performed well in animal studies against the other two deadly coronaviruses. In this review, we summarize the main points of clinical papers published in the current literature employed in epidemiology, clinical trials and intensive care unit (ICU) in COVID-19 disease.
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eISSN:1791-4914
ISSN:1105-848X
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