COVID-19 in China: From epidemiology to treatment (Review)

Hongtao Chen; Shipin Wu; Xiaoyong Zhang

doi:10.3892/etm.2020.9353

COVID-19 in China: From epidemiology to treatment (Review)

Exp Ther Med. 2020 Dec;20(6):223. doi: 10.3892/etm.2020.9353. Epub 2020 Oct 15.

Authors

Hongtao Chen^{1

2}, Shipin Wu¹, Xiaoyong Zhang³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Infectious Diseases, The Second Clinical Medical College, Shenzhen People's Hospital, Jinan University, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518020, P.R. China.
² Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microorganisms of Shenzhen, Shenzhen Institute of Respiratory Diseases, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518020, P.R. China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Viral Hepatitis Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510515, P.R. China.

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a newly emerging infectious disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. It first became prevalent in Wuhan, Hubei, China in December 2019. COVID-19 was initially characterized by pneumonia of unknown etiology, accompanied by fever, dry cough and fatigue. Due to its highly infectious nature it rapidly led to widespread human infection, causing 80,924 confirmed cases and 3,140 mortalities in mainland China as of March 9, 2020. The present review highlights the prevalence of COVID-19 in China, the etiology, pathology, clinical presentation, laboratory and chest imaging tests, and treatment of this disease.

Keywords: COVID-19; coronavirus; epidemiology; pathology; treatment.

Publication types

Review