COVID-19: Emergence of Infectious Diseases, Nanotechnology Aspects, Challenges, and Future Perspectives

Wuhan, a city of China, is the epicenter for the pandemic outbreak of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). It has become a severe public health challenge to the world and established a public health emergency of international worry. This infectious disease has pulled down the economy of almost all top developed nations. The coronaviruses (CoVs) known for various epidemics caused time to time. Infectious diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and middle east respiratory syndrome (MERS), followed by COVID-19, are all coronaviruses led outbreaks that scourged the history of mankind. CoVs evolved themselves to more infectious, transmissible, and more pandemic with time. To prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2, many countries have ordered the complete lockdown to combat the outbreak. This paper briefly discussed the historical background of CoVs and the evolution of human coronaviruses (HCoVs), the case studies and the development of their antiviral medications. The viral infection encountered with present-day challenges and futuristic approaches with the help of nanotechnology to minimize the spread of infectious viruses. The antiviral drugs and their clinical advances, along with herbal medicines for viral inhibition and immunity boosters, are described. Elaboration of tables related to CoVs for the compilation of the literature has been adopted for the better understanding.