Comparison between SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV 2

Abstract

COVID-19, which is officially called SARS-CoV-2, is a newly emerging viral respiratory illness leading to a global epidemic, which causes concerns among the global community in November 2019. SARS-CoV-2 is considered as the third global coronavirus epidemic in the past 20 years after SARS-CoV in 2002 and MERS in 2012. SARS is a viral respiratory illness caused by coronavirus SARS-CoV which was first reported in Guangdong, China in 2002. SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV share similar and different biological features, clinical manifestations, region distribution, transmission mechanisms, and clinical treatments. In this paper, differences and similarities between SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV are analyzed to provide valuable information for further research. Through analysis, we found SARS-CoV-2 and SARSCoV share a lot of similarities, but also have differences in clinical manifestations, pathogenicity, transmission rate and treatments.