An Overview of COVID-19 Medicines in Current Guidelines

Abstract

An acute respiratory disease caused by a new coronavirus (Severe acute respirotary syndrome-coronavirus-2, previously known as 2019-nCoV), coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), appeared in December 2019 and then has spread rapidly throughout the world starting from China, Japan and South Korea. As of January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization has officially declared the COVID-19 outbreak. Considering the clinical symptoms of COVID-19, it has many symptoms such as high fever, cough, and fatigue. It is reported that this disease is very severe and causes serious consequences such as cytokine storm and acute respiratory distress syndrome in the elderly and those with chronic diseases. Currently, scientists are trying to find a specific antiviral treatment strategy. Various medications such as hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir, ribavirin, remdesivir and favipiravir are currently being applied in clinical trials to test their efficacy and safety worldwide in COVID-19 treatment, and some promising results have been achieved so far. In this review, agents with potential efficacy against COVID-19 are presented in summary.