Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Sep 21, 2021; 27(35): 5822-5850
Published online Sep 21, 2021. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i35.5822
Environmental perspectives of COVID-19 outbreaks: A review
Palas Samanta, Apurba Ratan Ghosh
Palas Samanta, Department of Environmental Science, Sukanta Mahavidyalaya, University of North Bengal, Dhupguri 735210, West Bengal, India
Apurba Ratan Ghosh, Department of Environmental Science, The University of Burdwan, Burdwan 713104, West Bengal, India
Author contributions: Samanta P contributed to the conceptualization, writing- original draft preparation, software running; Ghosh AR contributed to the conceptualization, supervision, writing- reviewing and editing.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Palas Samanta, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Science, Sukanta Mahavidyalaya, University of North Bengal, Dhupguri, Jalpaiguri, Dhupguri 735210, West Bengal, India. samanta.palas2010@gmail.com
Received: December 14, 2020
Peer-review started: December 14, 2020
First decision: January 7, 2021
Revised: January 10, 2021
Accepted: August 12, 2021
Article in press: August 12, 2021
Published online: September 21, 2021
Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the novel virus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began in December 2019 in China and has led to a global public health emergency. Previously, it was known as 2019-nCoV and caused disease mainly through respiratory pathways. The COVID-19 outbreak is ranked third globally as the most highly pathogenic disease of the twenty-first century, after the outbreak of SARS-CoV and Middle East respiratory syndrome in 2002 and 2012, respectively. Clinical, laboratory, and diagnostic methodology have been demonstrated in some observational studies. No systematic reviews on COVID-19 have been published regarding the integration of COVID-19 outbreaks (monitoring, fate and treatment) with environmental and human health perspectives. Accordingly, this review systematically addresses environmental aspects of COVID-19 outbreak such as the origin of SARS-CoV-2, epidemiological characteristics, diagnostic methodology, treatment options and technological advancement for the prevention of COVID-19 outbreaks. Finally, we integrate COVID-19 outbreaks (monitoring, fate and treatment) with environmental and human health perspectives. We believe that this review will help to understand the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak as a multipurpose document, not only for the scientific community but also for global citizens. Countries should adopt emergency preparedness such as prepare human resources, infrastructure and facilities to treat severe COVID-19 as the virus spreads rapidly globally.

Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 virus, Environmental perspectives, Epidemiological characteristics, Public health, Emergency preparedness

Core Tip: This review is the first attempt to integrate coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreaks (monitoring, fate and treatment) with respect to environmental and human health perspectives. Briefly, the paper systematically addresses the environmental aspects of the COVID-19 outbreak such as the origin of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, epidemiological characteristics, diagnostic methodology, treatment options and technological advancement for the prevention of COVID-19 outbreaks.