Epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis and management of COVID-19
Saim Pamuk, Ahmet Özkan, Beldan PolatThe pneumonia cases occurred in Wuhan province of China in late December 2019 affected the whole world, and it was soon declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. It was understood that a new type of coronavirus (2019-nCoV), called COVID-19, was caused by the symptoms of fever, cough, and shortness of breath. The incubation period of the pathogen transmitted by the droplets of infected patients varies between 2 and 14 days. Although the disease has a lower mortality than previous severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreaks, it has threatened all humanity with a serious need for intensive care and increased death reports. In particular, those with comorbidities, children, elderly, and healthcare professionals are at a great risk. The precautions have not been able to fully control the virus, since no specific treatment or vaccine has been found yet. In this review, we discuss the virology, epidemiology, clinic, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 in the light of literature data.
