Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Pandemic and the Challenge of Public Health

Seung-Hwa Lee; Jong Myoung Kim

doi:10.21215/kjfp.2020.10.2.87

Korean J Fam Pract 2020; 10(2): 87-95 https://doi.org/10.21215/kjfp.2020.10.2.87

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Pandemic and the Challenge of Public Health

Seung-Hwa Lee¹, Jong Myoung Kim^1,2,3,*

¹Department of Family Medicine, Seongnam Citizens Medical Center; ²Public Health Policy Institute, Seongnam Citizens Medical Center; ³COVID-¹⁹ Task Force, Seongnam Citizens Medical Center, Seongnam, Korea

Jong Myoung Kim
Tel: +82-31-738-7260, Fax: +82-31-738-7810
E-mail: stuyoo@scmc.kr
ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3849-3512

Received: April 16, 2020; Revised: April 16, 2020; Accepted: April 16, 2020; Published online: April 20, 2020.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract: Infectious diseases caused by the novel coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, SARS-CoV-2), the first outbreak in China, are currently pandemic in the world, including in Korea. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 has not been proven and there has been no proper target medicine and vaccine, so it is virtually unprotected and is a serious health problem. A mitigation strategy that lowers and slows the peak of the epidemic is required to ensure efficient distribution of medical resources and time to development of therapeutic medicines and preventive vaccine. For this, close cooperation between the government and medical practitioners are required, and national prevention and prevention of the spread of the community and preparation for inflow from abroad will be required. In addition, large-scale studies on drugs including hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir, etc., which are known to be effective as therapeutic agents for COVID-19, are required to develop a vaccine for prevention. The authors hope that this review will assist primary care physicians currently engaged in patient care.; Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; 2019-nCoV; Wuhan Coronavirus; Mitigation Strategy

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