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Review
. 2020 Jul;360(1):5-34.
doi: 10.1016/j.amjms.2020.05.006. Epub 2020 May 11.

A Comprehensive Review of Manifestations of Novel Coronaviruses in the Context of Deadly COVID-19 Global Pandemic

Aishwarya Gulati  1 , Corbin Pomeranz  1 , Zahra Qamar  2 , Stephanie Thomas  3 , Daniel Frisch  2 , Gautam George  4 , Ross Summer  4 , Joseph DeSimone  2 , Baskaran Sundaram  5
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Free PMC article
Review

A Comprehensive Review of Manifestations of Novel Coronaviruses in the Context of Deadly COVID-19 Global Pandemic

Aishwarya Gulati et al. Am J Med Sci. .
Free PMC article
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Abstract

Since December 2019, the global pandemic caused by the highly infectious novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV (COVID-19) has been rapidly spreading. As of April 2020, the outbreak has spread to over 210 countries, with over 2,400,000 confirmed cases and over 170,000 deaths.1 COVID-19 causes a severe pneumonia characterized by fever, cough and shortness of breath. Similar coronavirus outbreaks have occurred in the past causing severe pneumonia like COVID-19, most recently, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). However, over time, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV were shown to cause extrapulmonary signs and symptoms including hepatitis, acute renal failure, encephalitis, myositis and gastroenteritis. Similarly, sporadic reports of COVID-19 related extrapulmonary manifestations emerge. Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive summary of the multiorgan manifestations of COVID-19, making it difficult for clinicians to quickly educate themselves about this highly contagious and deadly pathogen. What is more, is that SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV are the closest humanity has come to combating something similar to COVID-19, however, there exists no comparison between the manifestations of any of these novel coronaviruses. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge of the manifestations of the novel coronaviruses SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and COVID-19, with a particular focus on the latter, and highlight their differences and similarities.

Keywords: COVID-19; Middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus; Novel coronavirus; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus.

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