A coronavirus is one of many viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans, coronaviruses cause respiratory tract infections that are typically mild, such as the common cold, though rarer forms such as SARS, MERS and COVID-19 can be lethal. Symptoms vary in other species: in chickens, they cause an upper respiratory tract disease, while in cows and pigs they cause diarrhea. There are no vaccines or antiviral drugs to prevent or treat human coronavirus infections. Currently doctors are working on a medicine called Remdesivir that has promise to treat coronavirus symptoms. Remdesivir (development code GS-5734) is a novel antiviral drug in the class of nucleotide analogs. It was developed by Gilead Sciences as a treatment for Ebola virus disease and Marburg virus infections, though it has subsequently also been found to show antiviral activity against other single stranded RNA viruses such as respiratory syncytial virus, Junin virus, Lassa fever virus, Nipah virus, Hendra virus, and the coronaviruses (including MERS and SARS viruses). It is being studied for SARS-CoV-2 and Nipah and Hendra virus infections. Based on success against other coronavirus infections, Gilead provided remdesivir to physicians who treated an American patient in Snohomish County, Washington infected with the novel coronavirus 2019 and is providing the compound to China, to conduct a pair of trials in infected individuals with and without severe symptoms.
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