Coronavirus disease 2019 infection, an emerging infection caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, is a respiratory illness attributable to severe respiratory system inflammation. This review aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of potential therapeutic agents and vaccines proposed from the beginning of the pandemic until the present. A systematic electronic database search was conducted for relevant studies randomized controlled trials in six databases using keywords medical subject heading (MeSH) terms. In databases not supporting MeSH terms, combinations of all possible terms were used. Moreover, we conducted a manual search of references from the included articles by searching the primary studies that had cited our included papers. A total of 1,788 related articles were identified. The screening resulted in 37 records for further full-text screening. Manual search found one other paper. Finally, 13 studies were included in this systematic review. All of the reported vaccines showed acceptable efficacies and minimal side effects. However, they were not validated by big phase 3 trials, and therefore, their wide application to the public can not be recommended. Among the reported treatment modalities, convalescent plasma shows promising results in managing severe cases, while hydroxychloroquine was not efficacious as previously claimed.
Key words: COVID-19, treatment, vaccines, systematic review, randomised-controlled trials.
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