COVID-19 coronavirus: pathogenesis, clinical features, diagnostics, epidemiology, prevention and control

Abstract

Spreading of the diseases from country to country and from continent to another is one of the drawbacks of globalization. In December 2019, from Wuhan in China, COVID-19 was emerged as a new viral disease caused by a novel betacoronavirus which spread in more than 210 countries and 3 continents over 3 months. “SARS-CoV-2” is the name of the virus while “Coronavirus Disease 2019” (COVID-19) is the disease itself. Coronaviruses cause a variety of diseases in birds and mammals ranging from mild upper respiratory disease to severe acute respiratory distress which may lead to death. The aim of this review is to provide a brief introduction to coronaviruses, demonstrate and describe clinical features, epidemiological, transmission mode, treatment and vaccination trials of COVID-19 globally and in Egypt, and an attempt to review the rapid identification and diagnostic features of this virus as well as summarize history of pandemic and epidemic viral diseases. We hope our review will provide the global community and the literature with the wise steps for controlling and preventing the outbreak of this severe pathogenic virus.

Keywords

• sars-cov
• mers-cov
• sars-cov-2
• covid-19