History of Pandemics and COVID-19: What We are Learning from this Pandemic to Be Prepared for the Next One

Abstract

Since the beginning of human history, the pathogens affect the humankind. The emerge of the new outbreak of coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) is not new in the history of plagues. However, this pandemic has a huge difference from the others due to its ability to affect worldwide at the same time, which brings new perspectives to our future. In this review, we listed some of the worst epidemics and pandemics of human civilization and the new outbreak, listing the pathogens, the spread, and the consequences for mankind. Our search included articles in the main database (PubMed/Medline, Elsevier Science Direct, Scopus, Isi Web of Science, Embase, Exerpta Medica, UptoDate, Lilacs, Novel Coronavirus Resource Directory from Elsevier), in the high-impact international scientific Journals (Scimago Journal and Country Rank - SJR - and Journal Citation Reports - JCR), such as The Lancet, Science, Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine, Physiological Reviews, Journal of the American Medical Association, Plos One, Journal of Clinical Investigation, and in the data from Center for Disease Control (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and World Health Organization (WHO). We prior selected meta-analysis, systematic reviews, article reviews, and original articles in this order. We reviewed 192 articles and used 94 from March to June 2020, using the terms coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, novel coronavirus, Wuhan coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome, 2019-nCoV, 2019 novel coronavirus, n-CoV-2, COVID, n-SARS-2, COVID-19, corona virus, coronaviruses, history of pandemics and epidemics, pathogens, plagues, with the tools MeSH (Medical Subject Headings), AND, OR, and the characters [,“,; /., to ensure the best review topics. We concluded that this pandemic will change the social and economic order, as well as it is the first that affects us quickly. So, the experience of COVID-19 could teach us how to be prepared for other outbreaks in the future.