Current Challenges of the 2019-COVID Pandemic: Where We Started, Where We Are, and Where do We Go?

Tarek Khedro¹, George Yaghmour^1, , Giridharan Ramsingh¹ and Bassam Yaghmour²

¹Jane Anne Nohl Division of Hematology, Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033

²Pulmonary, Critical Care, Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033

Cite this paper:
Tarek Khedro, George Yaghmour, Giridharan Ramsingh and Bassam Yaghmour. Current Challenges of the 2019-COVID Pandemic: Where We Started, Where We Are, and Where do We Go?. American Journal of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology. 2020; 8(2):48-56. doi: 10.12691/ajidm-8-2-2

Abstract

The current outbreak of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease has disrupted the world. Many studies, clinical trials, and updates have been published with the goal of sharing information that will help prepare the world’s healthcare systems for the flood of patients expected to be infected with covid-19. The goal of this literature review is to provide an extensive summary of the most recent reports and studies since the initial outbreak and provide the most up-to-date understanding of the various aspects of covid-19—its spread, diagnosis, risk factors, and currently available and effective treatment strategies—with the hope that researchers and medical practitioners can use this a branching point to other studies that our outlined here. Symptom management is currently the primary strategy that is being implemented for covid-19 treatment, especially in patients who have developed severe disease. Many promising strategies to treat covid-19 are currently being investigated while a vaccine is under development. Anti-inflammatory drugs like sarilumab and antiviral drugs like chloroquine are undergoing clinical trials, and under an emergency protocol of the US FDA, practitioners can use the antibodies from plasma in covid-19 survivors to treat those infected.

Keywords:
2019 novel coronavirus disease (covid-19 2019-nCoV) severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) Chloroquine

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