Antiviral Therapy in Management of COVID-19: a System-atic Review on Current Evidence

The purpose of the current systematic review is to evaluate the efficacy of antiviral therapies intreatment of COVID-19. In addition, clinical trials on the efficacy of antiviral therapies in the management ofSevere Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (SARS-Cov) or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus(MERS-CoV ) have also been reviewed, in order to identify potential treatment options for COVID-19.

An extensive search was performed in Medline, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science and CENTRAL databases un-til the end of March 15, 2020. Two independent researchers performed the screening, and finally the relatedstudies were included.

Only one clinical trial on the efficacy of antiviral therapy in management ofCOVID-19 was found. The results depicted that adding Lopinavir-Ritonavir to the standard treatment regimenof patients with severe COVID-19 has no benefits. Moreover, 21 case-series and case-report studies reported theprescription of antiviral agents in COVID-19, none of which can be used to determine the efficacy of antiviraltherapies in confronting COVID-19. In addition, no clinical trials were found to be performed on the efficacyof antiviral agents in the management of SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV.

The current evidence impederesearchers from proposing an appropriate antiviral therapy against COVID-19, making the current situation aserious concern for international organizations such as World Health Organization (WHO). In the time of thecurrent pandemic and future epidemics, organizations such as WHO should pursue more proactive actions andplan well-designed clinical trials so that their results can be used in managing future epidemics