Have Diagnostics, Therapies, and Vaccines Made the Difference in the Pandemic Evolution of COVID-19 in Comparison with "Spanish Flu"?

Autor:	Lista F; Istituto di Scienze Biomediche della Difesa, Ispettorato Generale della Sanità Militare, Stato Maggiore della Difesa, 00184 Roma, Italy., Peragallo MS; Centro Studi e Ricerche di Sanità e Veterinaria, Comando Logistico dell'Esercito, 00184 Roma, Italy., Biselli R; Ispettorato Generale della Sanità Militare, Stato Maggiore della Difesa, 00184 Roma, Italy., De Santis R; Istituto di Scienze Biomediche della Difesa, Ispettorato Generale della Sanità Militare, Stato Maggiore della Difesa, 00184 Roma, Italy.; Dipartimento di Sanità Pubblica e Malattie Infettive, Sapienza, Università di Roma, 00161 Roma, Italy., Mariotti S; Dipartimento di Malattie Infettive, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, 00161 Roma, Italy., Nisini R; Dipartimento di Malattie Infettive, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, 00161 Roma, Italy., D'Amelio R; Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Molecolare, Sapienza, Università di Roma, 00198 Roma, Italy.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) [Pathogens] 2023 Jun 23; Vol. 12 (7). Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Jun 23.
DOI:	10.3390/pathogens12070868
Abstrakt:	In 1918 many countries, but not Spain, were fighting World War I. Spanish press could report about the diffusion and severity of a new infection without censorship for the first-time, so that this pandemic is commonly defined as "Spanish flu", even though Spain was not its place of origin. "Spanish flu" was one of the deadliest pandemics in history and has been frequently compared with the coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic. These pandemics share similarities, being both caused by highly variable and transmissible respiratory RNA viruses, and diversity, represented by diagnostics, therapies, and especially vaccines, which were made rapidly available for COVID-19, but not for "Spanish flu". Most comparison studies have been carried out in the first period of COVID-19, when these resources were either not yet available or their use had not long started. Conversely, we wanted to analyze the role that the advanced diagnostics, anti-viral agents, including monoclonal antibodies, and innovative COVID-19 vaccines, may have had in the pandemic containment. Early diagnosis, therapies, and anti-COVID-19 vaccines have markedly reduced the pandemic severity and mortality, thus preventing the collapse of the public health services. However, their influence on the reduction of infections and re-infections, thus on the transition from pandemic to endemic condition, appears to be of minor relevance. The high viral variability of influenza and coronavirus may probably be contained by the development of universal vaccines, which are not easy to be obtained. The only effective weapon still remains the disease prevention, to be achieved with the reduction of promiscuity between the animal reservoirs of these zoonotic diseases and humans. Competing Interests: The text contains the personal opinion of the Authors, not of their Institutions. The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Databáze:	MEDLINE
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