Abstract:
Abstract.
Infectious diseases have plagued humanity since the earliest days of civilizations. Civilizations and subsequent history have been altered profoundly by the outbreak of pathogenic infectious diseases that decimated societies and killed millions of people. The formation of agrarian communities facilitated and increased the spread of infectious diseases. Widespread trade created new opportunities for human and animal interactions that sped up such epidemics. Malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, smallpox, influenza, smallpox, cholera, viruses and other infectious agents appeared during these early years. Urbanization, expansion of cities, globalization of trade and the explosion of mass international travelling increased contact with different populations of people, animals, and ecosystems. All these factors contributed to old and recent infectious disease pandemics. Vaccination is widely considered one of the greatest medical achievements of modern human civilization. Infectious diseases that were commonplace less than a generation ago are now increasingly rare because of vaccines and various antiviral drugs. The current outbreak of the pandemic of virus SARS-CoV-2 (2019-2020) caught developed and developing countries with widespread sickness and deaths. At the same time it initiated an urgent need by big pharmaceutical companies and research centers of medical institutions worldwide to search for new drugs and vaccines to combat the new virulent coronavirus. The virus has been proved to be very contagious and has already shown it has the potential to kill people like the elderly and people with underlying health conditions. This review covers all the recent developments all over the world for antiviral pharmaceutical agents and suitable vaccines. Also, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced in March 2020 a large global trial, called SOLIDARITY, to find out if can treat infections like COVID-19 coronavirus. It is an unprecedented effort—an all-out, coordinated push to collect robust scientific data rapidly during a pandemic. Also, the European community initiates the DISCOVERY project to include 3,200 European patients from Belgium, France, Germany Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. In France, at least 800 hospitalized COVID-19 patients will be recruited.
Keywords:
epidemics, history, new antiviral drugs, vaccines, COVID-19
