ABSTRACT
The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the agent of the current pandemic of therespiratory disease known as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The government and health authorities aroundthe world have advocated social distancing, containment measures, and effective diagnosis as the first measuresto slow down the spread of the disease, but, still, treatment options are urgent, especially for patients evolving tosevere pneumonia. Several pharmaceuticals with antiviral effects were identified and tested, to some extent, duringthe previous SARS-CoV and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreaks. Type I interferons (IFNs),ribavirin, lopinavir/ritonavir, chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine, and remdesivir emerge as the primary options forin-hospital treatment of patients with COVID-19, focused on reducing the viral load. Although more experimental andclinical evidence is required, the accumulated in vitro and clinical knowledge discussed here supports those drugs asfeasible alternatives to face the SARS-CoV infection in the short term, whereas more effective measures arise fromthe world scientific community
ABSTRACT
Candida auris (C. auris) is an emerging multidrug resistant fungus considered as the cause of several nosocomialinfections of bad prognosis. This study presents a bibliometric analysis of global scientific research on C. auris sinceit was isolated first in 2009. A systematic search was conducted in Scopus databases in the period of 2009–2018 and atotal of 227 indexed documents were retrieved. A sharp increase in the number of studies related to drug and multidrugresistance of C. auris during 2016–2018 was observed, coinciding with an increase in the number of first-case andoutbreak reports worldwide. The leading countries based on the number of publications were United States, India,and the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, Netherlands ranked first when (i) ratio between the number of citations andnumber of publications, (ii) ratio between the number of publications and gross domestic product (GDP), and (iii) ratiobetween the number of citations and GDP were used as indicators of productivity. Despite the recent emergence of thetopic since the first-case report in 2009, recent research efforts have allowed identifying Ibrexafungerp (SCY-078) andRezafungin (CD101) as possible candidates for facing the actual antifungal resistance of C. auris.