Overview of COVID-19 Disease: Virology, Epidemiology, Prevention Diagnosis, Treatment, and Vaccines

Coronaviruses belong to the “Coronaviridae family”, which causes various diseases, from the common cold to SARS and MERS. The coronavirus is naturally prevalent in mammals and birds. So far, six human-transmitted coronaviruses have been discovered. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was first reported in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. Common symptoms include fever, dry cough, and fatigue, but in acute cases, the disease can lead to severe shortness of breath, hypoxia, and death. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the three main transmission routes, such as droplet and contact routes, airborne transmission and fecal and oral for COVID-19, have been identified. So far, no definitive curative treatment has been discovered for COVID-19, and the available treatments are only to reduce the complications of the disease. According to the World Health Organization, preventive measures at the public health level such as quarantine of the infected person, identification and monitoring of contacts, disinfection of the environment, and personal protective equipment can significantly prevent the outbreak COVID-19. Currently, based on the urgent needs of the community to control this pandemic, the BNT162b2 (Pfizer), mRNA-1273 (Moderna), CoronaVac (Sinovac), Sputnik V (Gamaleya Research Institute, Acellena Contract Drug Research, and Development), BBIBP-CorV (Sinofarm), and AZD1222 (The University of Oxford; AstraZeneca) vaccines have received emergency vaccination licenses from health organizations in vaccine-producing countries. Vasso Apostolopoulos, Majid Hassanzadeganroudsari