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| EDITORIAL |
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| Year : 2019 | Volume
: 1
| Issue : 3 | Page : 75 |
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Editorial - Focus on the Study of Coronavirus Disease 2019
Yuan Zhu, Zhiyong Peng
Department of Intensive Care Unit, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
| Date of Submission | 07-Sep-2020 |
| Date of Acceptance | 28-Sep-2020 |
| Date of Web Publication | 28-Oct-2020 |
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Zhiyong Peng
Department of Intensive Care Unit, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan
China
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/jtccm.jtccm_17_20
How to cite this article:
Zhu Y, Peng Z. Editorial - Focus on the Study of Coronavirus Disease 2019. J Transl Crit Care Med 2019;1:75 |
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is characterized by fast person-to-person transmission causedand by the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has become a global pandemic changing people's lifestyle and even threatening people's life. As of August 29, COVID-19 has yielded more than 24 million confirmed cases and 827,730 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.[1] The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reported that about 80% of cases are asymptomatic or mild disease, 14% have severe disease, and 6% need intensive care.[2] Such a high proportion of asymptomatic and mild infections may partly explain the rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2. America, Europe, and South-East Asia are the main battlegrounds of this tough warfare between SARS-CoV-2 and not only the frontline health-care workers but also, we humans. The ongoing pandemic has changed the way of learning and working of every person on the planet, brought the exhaustion of health-care workers, and caused the strained supply chain of health-care resources. In a long run, the pandemic may even lead to the collapse of the global health-care system as well as the global economy if it is not effectively contained.
COVID-19 erupted so suddenly that we basically knew nothing about it at first. Scientists and health-care professionals worldwide are trying to know COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 better and they had made some breakthroughs: the clinical manifestations[3] and histopathological changes[4] in the infected lung tissue of COVID-19 had been summarized and the structure and genetical characterization, the host source, the interaction with angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 protein receptor, and the epidemiological characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 were also discovered.[5] However, more information about its biology, epidemiology, genetic variation, pathophysiology, and treatment is still waiting to be investigated. The international community has also noticed the long-term impact of this global pandemic on mental health, health disparities, education method, society functioning, economic development, and international relations. Some clinical trials on the efficacy of potentially effective treatments are in process, but few treatments have been proven strongly effective against COVID-19 based on completed clinical trials on this stage. So far, rapid diagnosis and vaccines may be the most promising means to curb this global pandemic. To contain the spread of disease and help care for those affected, the World Health Organization is attempting to bring global scientists together and build a COVID-19 database to accelerate the process of diagnosis, vaccines, and therapeutics.
Therefore, we are glad to do our part to facilitate the dissemination of the up-to-date information and better serve the community. In the following issues, we will take more studies on the biology, epidemiology, pathophysiology, and treatment of COVID-19, as well as reviews and perspectives. We are also interested in the studies associated with the long-term influence of COVID-19 and are eager to hear constructive suggestions to help improve the current situation. We sincerely appreciate the work all researchers have done to curb the spread of COVID-19 and help people fight against it.
| References | |  |
| 1. | World Health Organization. WHO Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Dashboard 2020. Available from: https://covid19.who.int/. [Last accessed on 2020 Aug 29].  |
| 2. | |
| 3. | Baj J, Karakuła-Juchnowicz H, Teresiński G, Buszewicz G, Ciesielka M, Sitarz E, et al. COVID-19: Specific and Non-Specific Clinical Manifestations and Symptoms: The Current State of Knowledge. J Clin Med 2020;9:1753. |
| 4. | Polak SB, Van Gool IC, Cohen D, von der Thüsen JH, van Paassen J. A systematic review of pathological findings in COVID-19: a pathophysiological timeline and possible mechanisms of disease progression. Mod Pathol 2020 Jun 22; 1-11. [Online ahead of print] |
| 5. | Uddin M, Mustafa F, Rizvi TA, Loney T, Suwaidi HA, Al-Marzouqi AHH, et al. SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19: Viral Genomics, Epidemiology, Vaccines, and Therapeutic Interventions. Viruses 2020;12:526. |
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