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Updated: Dec 20, 2025

Author Spotlight: Advancements in Multiplex Detection of Respiratory Viruses
Published on: November 10, 2023
A Guide to COVID-19: a global pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2
Cassandra L Atzrodt1, Insha Maknojia1, Robert D P McCarthy1
1Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
Abstract:
The emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 strain of the human coronavirus has thrown the world into the midst of a new pandemic. In the human body, the virus causes COVID-19, a disease characterized by shortness of breath, fever, and pneumonia, which can be fatal in vulnerable individuals. SARS-CoV-2 has characteristics of past human coronaviruses, with close genomic similarities to SARS-CoV, the virus that causes the disease SARS. Like these related coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted through the inhalation of droplets and interaction with contaminated surfaces. Across the world, laboratories are developing candidate vaccines for the virus - with vaccine trials underway in the United States and the United Kingdom - and considering various drugs for possible treatments and prophylaxis. Here, we provide an overview of SARS-CoV-2 by analyzing its virology, epidemiology, and modes of transmission while examining the current progress of testing procedures and possible treatments through drugs and vaccines.
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