Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Virol. Jul 25, 2021; 10(4): 182-208
Published online Jul 25, 2021. doi: 10.5501/wjv.v10.i4.182
Current systematic reviews and meta-analyses of COVID-19
Mahmoud Nassar, Nso Nso, Mostafa Alfishawy, Anastasia Novikov, Salim Yaghi, Luis Medina, Bahtiyar Toz, Sofia Lakhdar, Zarwa Idrees, Yungmin Kim, Dawa Ongyal Gurung, Raheel S Siddiqui, David Zheng, Mariam Agladze, Vikram Sumbly, Jasmine Sandhu, Francisco Cuevas Castillo, Nadya Chowdhury, Ravali Kondaveeti, Sakil Bhuiyan, Laura Guzman Perez, Riki Ranat, Carlos Gonzalez, Harangad Bhangoo, John Williams, Alaa Eldin Osman, Joyce Kong, Jonathan Ariyaratnam, Mahmoud Mohamed, Ismail Omran, Mariely Lopez, Akwe Nyabera, Ian Landry, Saba Iqbal, Anoosh Zafar Gondal, Sameen Hassan, Ahmed Daoud, Bahaaeldin Baraka, Theo Trandafirescu, Vincent Rizzo
Mahmoud Nassar, Nso Nso, Anastasia Novikov, Salim Yaghi, Luis Medina, Bahtiyar Toz, Sofia Lakhdar, Zarwa Idrees, Yungmin Kim, Dawa Ongyal Gurung, Raheel S Siddiqui, David Zheng, Mariam Agladze, Vikram Sumbly, Jasmine Sandhu, Francisco Cuevas Castillo, Nadya Chowdhury, Ravali Kondaveeti, Sakil Bhuiyan, Laura Guzman Perez, Riki Ranat, Carlos Gonzalez, Harangad Bhangoo, John Williams, Alaa Eldin Osman, Joyce Kong, Jonathan Ariyaratnam, Ismail Omran, Akwe Nyabera, Ian Landry, Saba Iqbal, Anoosh Zafar Gondal, Sameen Hassan, Vincent Rizzo, Department of Internal Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai/NYC H&H Queens, New York, NY 11432, United States
Mostafa Alfishawy, Department of Infectious Diseases, Infectious Diseases Consultants and Academic Researchers of Egypt (IDCARE), Cairo 11221, Outside of the US, Egypt
Mahmoud Mohamed, Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Knoxville City, TN 38103, United States
Mariely Lopez, Department of Medical, St. George's University, West Indies 38901, Grenada
Ahmed Daoud, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo 11221, Egypt
Bahaaeldin Baraka, Department of Oncology, Broomfiled Hospital, Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, ESSEX, Chelmsford 12422, United Kingdom
Theo Trandafirescu, Department of Critical Care Unit, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai/NYC H&H Queens, New York, NY 11432, United States
Author contributions: Nassar M, Nso N, Alfishawy M, Baraka B screened the articles; Nassar M, Nso N, Alfishawy M, Novikov A, Yaghi S, Medina L, Toz B, Lakhdar S, Idrees Z, Kim Y, Gurung DO, Siddiqui RS, Zheng D, Agladze M, Sumbly V, Sandhu J, Castillo FC, Chowdhury N, Kondaveeti R, Bhuiyan S, PerezLG, Ranat R, Gonzalez C, Bhangoo H, Williams J, Osman AE, Baraka B, Ariyaratnam J, Mohamed M, Omran I, Lopez M, Nyabera A, Landry I, Iqbal S, Kong J, Gondal AZ, Hassan S, Daoud A reviewed the included studies and wrote the manuscripts; Trandafirescu T and Rizzo V reviewed and edited the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors confirm the absence of personal and financial interests impacting the outcomes of this research study.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
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: Mahmoud Nassar, MD, MSc, PhD, Doctor, Department of Internal Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai/NYC H&H Queens, 82-68 164th Street Jamaica, New York, NY 11432, United States. dr.nassar@aucegypt.edu
Received: February 24, 2021
Peer-review started: February 24, 2021
First decision: March 31, 2021
Revised: April 13, 2021
Accepted: June 3, 2021
Article in press: June 3, 2021
Published online: July 25, 2021
Processing time: 146 Days and 12.9 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to impact the sociopolitical, economic, and health care systems across the globe. Robust strategies to control this pandemic's unchecked progression are vital to restore and normalize the health and wellness of human populations. This article summarizes facts and evidence from the current body of literature concerning multiple aspects of COVID-19.

Research motivation

No research studies so far have succeeded in recommending a definite remedy to contain coronavirus infection transmission. The current study's motivation emanated from the requirement of improving the current knowledge base about COVID-19 prevalence, progression, incidence, management, and outcomes.

Research objectives

The research objective included the critical assessment of COVID-19-related meta-analyses and systematic reviews to explore the current knowledge gaps and track the best evidence to inform the scientific community.

Research methods

The research method relied on a robust search strategy based on the combination of various key terms while excluding panel reviews, guideline documents, opinion papers, scoping reviews, and rapid reviews related to COVID-19.

Research results

The research results generated 1219 studies concerning the COVID-19 knowledge base based on fifty predefined attributes.

Research conclusions

The outcomes of our study emphasized the need for future research to understand the scope of possible vaccines and prevention/treatment options in the setting of COVID-19.

Research perspectives

Prospective studies should deploy multicentred approaches to unravel the clinical findings, risk factors, and prevention/treatment guidelines in COVID-19 scenarios.