Covid-19 have created a havoc in the whole Nation. Its numbers are just increasing day by day. Wanna know from where did this virus come from ? Why doctors are unable to treat these patients? Why it took so long to develop a vaccine ? We are going to discuss about all these questions in this article. Now let’s get right into it.
FORM WHERE DID COVID-19 COME ?
For almost a decade, a few scientists chased the source of a deadly new virus in the tallest mountain and most isolated caverns of China. They found it in the bats of Shitai cave. In 2003 this coronavirus (SARS /CoV) caused an epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome.
In 2012 at Saudi Arabia coronavirus was transmitted from camels to human beings known as MERS CoV.
In December 2019, there was a cluster of pneumonia cases in the city of Wuhan in China. Some of the early cases had reported visiting or working in seafood and live animal markets in Wuhan. The investigation found that the diseases were caused by newly discovered coronavirus it was subsequently named as COVID-19.
Epidemic/pandemic occurs when a virus jumps from an animal to a human
WHAT IS CORONAVIRUS?
Corona in Latin is known as Crown. Coronavirus is a group of viruses that contain small protein Spikes that covers itself and looks like a crown.
Inside the virus, it contains a genetic material that contains the information to make a copy of itself. A protein shell that provides a hard protection enclosure for the genetic material as virus Travels between the people it infects and the Outer envelope allows the virus to infect the cells by merging with the cell’s outer membrane projecting from the envelope spikes protein-membrane.
There are hundreds of coronaviruses known. Out of these 100, seven can cause disease to humans. Out of these 7, two can infect lungs and causes much more severe illness. Out of these seven, 4 causes cold, mild highly contagious infection of nose and throat. The seventh one causes covid-19 it has the feature of each.
SYMPTOMS
COMMON
- Cough
- Sour throat
- Shortness of breath
RARE
- Skin rash
- Lost of taste or smell
IS COVID-19 SIMILAR TO FLU?
Many people say that coronavirus is similar to flu. If a person gets flu it can infect one or two people and get them sick. So, after 10 rounds that makes a total of 56 people Sick. If a person gets Corona it can infect two people at a time. So, after 10 rounds that’s more than 2047 people Sick.
The time between you catch the virus and when you realize you are sick (1st symptom shows) is known as the incubation period. Coronavirus has an incubation period of 5 to 14 days. The person is contagious between this period. Hence Quarantine was introduced for 5 to 14 days. But for the flu, the incubation period is for only 2 days.
Flu has a mortality rate of 0.1 %. This 0.1% causes 60,000 of death per year in the US. The mortality rate for coronavirus is 20- 30% which is 10 times more than the flu. Hence their symptoms might seem similar but they are totally different. And coronavirus is much more dangerous.
80% of patients recover from coronavirus without needing special treatment. 20% are the older people underlining medical problems such as chronic respiratory disease, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, etc.
WHAT MAKES COVID-19 DIFFERENT FROM OTHER VIRUSES ?
All the viruses are either DNA viruses or RNA viruses. Coronavirus is an RNA virus. RNA viruses are dangerous because they tend to be small and with fewer genes which means it can infect many host/people and replicate easily.
RNA viruses have a mistake while replicating called mutation. Many of them are useless and some are very harmful but some viruses make better suited for certain environments. Once the virus is in the human it still mutates, usually not enough to create a new virus but enough to create variations in the original one.
Ebola and SARS are also RNA viruses that caused epidemic and covid-19 caused a pandemic.
WHY THE COVID-19 CAUSED PANDEMIC?
Coronavirus is a bit different from most of the Other RNA viruses. It undergoes a slow mutation. It contains a unique enzyme that checks for mistakes, errors, and corrects them for the replication, which makes the virus more stable. Some mutated coronavirus is very large which means they contain more genes and are dangerous. That creates more opportunities for harmful mutations. Hence this is the reason because of mutations the development of vaccine was delayed.
Generally, after infection, our immune system can recognize the germ and resist them to cause infection. Once recognized, immune system destroys them quickly. But because of mutation, it becomes very difficult for our immune system to recognize the virus and destroy them.
There was never a proper vaccine developed for Corona not even during SARS. The mutation causes vaccines and antiviral drugs less effective because they are related by one specific virus. Hence new vaccine should be developed every year.
Keep in mind that this is a new disease and what’s known is rapidly evolving and might change in future.
Covid-19 has no proper cure. Our immune system is new to this virus hence every single person is susceptible to it. The only cure we have against it is being antisocial. So, stay at home, avoid social gathering, maintain social distancing, increase your immunity. That’s the only way to break the chain of coronavirus.
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Author : Dr. Easminara Shaikh
