%0 Journal Article %T The Battle Against COVID-19: Where Do We Stand Now? %J Iranian Journal of Medical Sciences %I Shiraz University of Medical Sciences %Z 0253-0716 %A Negahdaripour, Manica %D 2020 %\ 03/01/2020 %V 45 %N 2 %P 81-82 %! The Battle Against COVID-19: Where Do We Stand Now? %K COVID-19 %K coronavirus %R 10.30476/ijms.2020.46357 %X COVID-19, the name given by the World Health Organization (WHO) to the recent coronavirus associated disease, has become a well-known term around the world recently. The first reports on this infection were made in December 2019 in Wuhan, China as a series of pneumonia with an unknown cause, which was linked to a novel kind of coronavirus on 31 December 2019.1, 2 SARS-CoV-2, the causing agent of this disease, is an enveloped positive sense RNA virus3 belonging to betacoronavirus genera, Coronaviridae family.4 Although this group of viruses usually induces mild cold conditions, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) were identified from the same family several years ago causing deadly serious respiratory diseases.3 In spite of the lower fatality rate of SARS-CoV-2 than MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV,4 its risks are regarded serious, mainly because of the high transmissibility of the virus and its ability to survive for long hours on different surfaces. Moreover, the reports show that it may cause only insignificant flu-like symptoms in many contaminated people2 who can easily infect others in the society. On this basis, COVID-19 was declared as a public health emergency of international concern by WHO. %U https://ijms.sums.ac.ir/article_46357_0f2debd78e25a98904afe267fac58d1f.pdf