Unnes Journal of Public Health 10 (1) (2021) Unnes Journal of Public Health http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/ujph COVID-19 Pandemic: Te Existing Challenges and Available Solution; Evidence from a Systematic Review Mohammad Injamul Hoq 1 , Md Hamidur Rahman Sime 2 , Md. Mohotasin Hossain 3 , Md Abdul Awal 4 , Muminul Hoque 3 1 School of Public Health, Epidemiology and Social Medicine at the Institute of Medicine, University of Gothenburg; Gothenburg, Sweden 2 Technical University of Munich, Friesing, 85354, Munich, Germany 3 International Islamic University Chittagong, Chittagong-4318, Chittagong, Bangladesh 4 King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Abstract Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is presently the most important topic worldwide. However, no vaccine or specifc anti-viral treatment for the disease has been shown to be efective. In this emergency, identifying risk factors, preventive measures and esti- mating challenges which control available drug options for COVID-19 are key to miti- gating the severity of the pandemic until specifc drugs or vaccines become available. Terefore, this study aims to identify possible factors which afect these drug options. Tis study searched PubMed database using necessary Boolean operators from December 31st to March 31st 2020 in order to identify common risk factors, preventive measures, informa- tion regarding control challenges & evidence on the available drug options against COVID-19. Risk factors were found to be human-animal interactions, males, aged peo- ple and people with co-morbidity. Furthermore, protective factors com- prised of personal hygiene etiquette maintenance, rapid identifcation, isola- tion and informing (3I tools) of the COVID-19 cases and media coverage on COVID-19. Till date, anti-viral drugs like remdesivir, chloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) are available options to fght against COVID-19 More research is needed to determine other how to control the disease until specifc treat- ment options are available as well as risk factors, and preventive measures. pISSN 2252-6781 eISSN 2548-7604 Article Info Article History: Submitted July 2020 Accepted October 2020 Published January 2021 Keywords: COVID-19, PubMed, Risk Factors, Personal Hygiene Etiquette, Anti-viral Drugs DOI https://doi.org/10.15294/ ujph.v10i1.39513  Correspondence Address: School of Public Health, Epidemiology and Social Medicine at the Institute of Medicine, University of Gothenburg; Gothenburg, Sweden E-mail: injamul_hoq05@yahoo.com INTRODUCTION In December 2019 lockdown of Wuhan, a central city of china has alarmed the world that it is going to face one of the biggest threats by the third pathogenic coronavirus afer Severe Acute Respi- ratory Syndrome-Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), the disease due to this virus known as COVID-19. At frst, the virus was known as “Wu- han coronavirus” named by Chinese researchers. But currently, the International Committee on Ta- xonomy of Viruses (ICTV) designated it as SARS- CoV-2. Tis virus was frst initiated in the Hunan seafood market, China, and in the frst month, it caused 360 fatalities and over 20 000 suspected ca- ses (Khan et al., 2020). Researchers revealed that the genome of SARS-COV-2 is 80% identical to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-like bat CoVs