Journal of Education and Health Promotion

Abstract In December 2019, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2)
became evident in Wuhan, China, and then spread rapidly worldwide. Numerous drugs
and vaccines are under clinical trial pipeline for investigation against coronavirus disease
2019 (COVID‑19) infection. The aim of this systematic review was to discuss about
investigational new as well as repurposed drugs currently under trial for COVID‑19
infection. An exhaustive search was carried out for this review article including scientific
databases of PubMed, Embase, ClinicalTrials.gov, WHO International Clinical Trials
Registry Platform, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, ProQuest, Google Scholar, and Scopus
search engines using keywords of “Coronavirus,” “COVID‑19,” “MERS‑CoV,” “MERS,”
“SARS‑CoV‑2,” and “SARS‑CoV‑1” and “Solidarity trial” and their Persian‑equivalent
keywords from inception until May 2020. After screening the 296 articles searched from
different databases (PubMed = 97 and other search engines = 199), 52 articles were included
in the final systematic review. It was found that the World Health Organization introduced
a Solidarity international clinical trial to discover an effectual treatment of COVID‑19. Based
on established in vitro and in vivo activity against different strains of coronaviruses, four
repurposed drugs – remdesivir, lopinavir/ ritonavir combination, lopinavir/ritonavir
with beta‑1a, chloroquine, and hydroxychloroquine – were considered for clinical trial
against COVID‑19. A number of other drugs and vaccines are under clinical trial pipeline
for investigation against COVID‑19 infection. Despite multitude of treatment options
available, treatment of choice is still not well established. Moreover, optimum supportive
care and monitoring of seriously ill patients is the need of the hour.

Abstract BACKGROUND AND AIM: Given the prevalence of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19)
and the lack of information on coronavirus and pregnancy, the purpose of this study was to evaluate
the association of COVID‑19 and perinatal outcomes in pregnant women.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the present review article, the search process was conducted on
English and Persian scientific databases of PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, Magiran, Irandoc,
Iranmedx, and SID as well as the websites of international organizations of World Health Organization
and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention using the main keywords of “Pregnancy,” “Perinatal
outcomes,” “Coronavirus,” “COVID‑19,” “MERS‑CoV,” “MERS,” “SARS‑CoV‑2,” and “SARS‑CoV‑1”
and their Persian‑equivalent keywords from inception until March 16 2020.
RESULTS: The findings of studies on mothers with COVID‑19 were limited, and insufficient information
is available on the adverse pregnancy outcomes in pregnant women with COVID‑19. In cases of
infection with other coronaviruses such as Middle East respiratory syndrome and severe acute
respiratory syndrome during pregnancy, there have been reports on adverse pregnancy outcomes
such as miscarriage, stillbirth, preterm labor, low birth weight, and congenital malformations following
high fever in the first trimester.
CONCLUSION: Pregnant women may be more susceptible to viral respiratory infections, including
COVID‑19, due to immunological and physiological changes. Therefore, pregnant women should
take routine preventive measures, such as washing their hands frequently and avoiding contact with
infected people, to prevent infection.