Coronavirus disease‑2019 (Review)

From the end of 2019, an ongoing outbreak of a new type of unexplained pneumonia caused by a novel coro- navirus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was first identified in Wuhan, China. Since then, it has spread to most parts of China and worldwide, thus affecting the health of individuals worldwide. Until August 2020, >25 million cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection had been confirmed worldwide, causing >800,000 deaths. This disease was named by the World Health Organization as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Similar to SARS and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, which are also caused by coronavirus infections, COVID-19 mainly causes severe respiratory system damage;however, it also causes damage to multiple organs, including the gastrointestinal tract, the cardiovascular system and the nervous system. The main aim of the present review article was to summarize the current knowledge of COVID-19, such as the transmission process, diagnostic methods, pathological character- istics, potential pathogenic mechanisms and treatment measures. © 2021 Spandidos Publications. All rights reserved.