Abstract

 As human civilization rises, the combat with diseases emerges with it. Beginning with the earliest documented pandemic of 430 BC in Athens during the Peloponnesian war to the ongoing novel coronavirus disease 2019 (nCOVID-19), mankind has been ravaged by different warfares from the microbial populations. As the carnages recorded daily from COVID-19 infection rages unabated, there is an on-going concern that this event with all its dynamics and attendant consequences has in its embryo the potential to triggered the global economy into a quagmire and leave an indelible deleterious impact on mankind. It is against this background that this review discusses succinctly the historical origin of human coronaviruses with the chronology, genome, epidemiology, transmission, pathogenesis and therapeutic options for the nCOVID-19 infection. We highlight that currently over 210 countries around the globe and two international conveyances have been affected by the pandemic. High mortality occurs mostly among senile individuals and patients with multiple comorbidities; however very few pediatric cases have so far been reported. The zoonotic source of SARS-CoV-2 is yet to be affirmed. Nevertheless, the sequence-based analysis suggested bats as the potent reservoir. Several reports have suggested person-to-person contact has the most probable route of transmission. Hitherto, no promising clinical therapies or prevention strategies is in prospect against human coronaviruses. This review opines that more research is expeditiously required to identify novel chemotherapeutic drugs for treating COVID-19 infections. In order to develop pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis against COVID-19, there is an urgent need to establish an animal model to replicate the severe disease currently observed in humans. However, the momentous question still yet to be answered is - will the world find a panacea to this ravaging pandemic?

Keywords: Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Pandemic; Transmission; Pathogenesis; Therapeutic

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Citation

Citation: Sokan-Adeaga Adewale Allen. “The Deadly Scourge Call COVID-19: Will Mankind Find a Panacea to this Pandemic?". Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 4.6 (2020): 70-78.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Sokan-Adeaga Adewale Allen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.