Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Pharmacol. Nov 20, 2021; 10(1): 1-32
Published online Nov 20, 2021. doi: 10.5497/wjp.v10.i1.1
Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19): A safety perspective
Joshua Davis, Ugochukwu Umeh, Rand Saba
Joshua Davis, Department of Emergency Medicine, Vituity, Wichita, KS 67214, United States
Ugochukwu Umeh, College of Medicine, Medical University of Lublin, Lublin 20-093, Poland
Rand Saba, Department of Surgery, Ascension Providence Hospital, Southfield, MI 48075, United States
Author contributions: Davis J devised the concept and drafted the manuscript; All authors contributed to data collection, editing for critical content, and approved and take final responsibility for the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors have no conflicts of interest, financial or other, 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: Joshua Davis, MD, Attending Doctor, Department of Emergency Medicine, Vituity, 929 N. St. Francis Avenue, Wichita, KS 67214, United States. jjvwd@udel.edu
Received: June 28, 2021
Peer-review started: June 28, 2021
First decision: July 31, 2021
Revised: August 22, 2021
Accepted: September 16, 2021
Article in press: September 16, 2021
Published online: November 20, 2021
Processing time: 141 Days and 21.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has radically changed the approach to healthcare and public health in the last year. Over 100 million people worldwide have been affected. Dexamethasone appears to be the most efficacious drug for appropriately selected patients with COVID-19 (i.e., those requiring supplemental oxygen). Remdesivir may reduce length of hospitalization with mild side effects. While they do not have enough evidence to be recommended at this time, ivermectin and zinc should be studied further for early illness and interferon and interleukin blockade should be studied for critical illness. Hydroxychloroquine/chloroquine, azithromycin, and vitamins C and D have no evidence of benefit at this time.