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ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CORONA VIRUS

January 31, 2020


A newly discovered corona virus has caused a number of deaths in China and this virus is affecting people not only in China but also in other parts of the world. Public awareness is important regarding this virus as it can affect anyone.

What is Corona Virus?

Corona virus was first identified in 1960’s. This virus gets its name because of crown-like spikes on its surface. It consists of four main groups i.e. alpha, beta, gamma and delta. According to WHO, It’s a family of viruses which cause severe illnesses. It is zoonotic which means that it is transmitted between animals and people.

On 31st December, WHO was alerted to many cases of pneumonia in Wuhan city, Hubei Province of China.  It is a newly discovered virus which does not match with any other virus. On 7th January, Chinese authorities confirmed identification of this new virus.


Coronavirus


How it started?

The novel (new) corona virus appears to be originated from the seafood market of China where wild animals including bats and snakes etc are traded illegally. They are thought to get transmitted from animals to humans. So it is thought that the people who first carried this virus were in close contact with animals. According to virologists at Wuhan Institute of Virology this virus came from bats because genetic make-up of new corona virus is almost 96% similar to that of coronavirus found in bats.

How this virus spreads?

The virus which was first detected in Wuhan city and continues to expand. Chinese health officials reported thousands of infections with 2019-nCoV. It has been found that this virus is spreading from person to person and also growing in number in international locations including U.S. In U.S first confirmed instance of person to person spread with virus was on Jan 30, 2020.

2019-nCoV is a beta coronavirus. As mentioned earlier, many of the persons who got affected by this new virus in Wuhan, China were linked to a seafood and live animal market which shows animal to person spread. Later, it was found that many affected patients had no contact/ exposure to the animal market which shows the spread of this virus from person to person.

Corona Virus Real-time map shows world wide spread of this virus

WHO (World Health Organization) has declared a global health emergency. 213 people have reportedly died in China. Number of confirmed cases is 9,776 globally. The following map relies on data collected from WHO (World Health Organization), CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), NHC (National Health Comission of the People’s Republic of China) and Dingxiangyuan-which is an online medical community.

Coronavirus Map 


Symptoms of corona virus

According to CDC, the symptoms of 2019 -nCoV may appear from 2-14 days after exposure. Following are the symptoms of corona virus:


  • ·         Fever
  • ·         Cough
  • ·         Shortness of breath
  • ·         Pneumonia
  • ·         Severe acute respiratory syndrome
  • ·         Kidney failure
Coronavirus Symptoms 


Treatment of corona virus

WHO is working with China to stop the spread of this life-threatening disease and ways in which countries should respond to it. CDC is also monitoring an outbreak of this disease caused by a new virus. CDC is also working with China to find a treatment for this newly emerging death-causing virus. Currently there is no vaccine to treat this virus but preventive measures can be taken which are discussed next.

CDC Response

CDC is conducting enhanced entry screening of passengers who have been in Wuhan at 5 designated U.S airports. CDC has also deployed multidisciplinary teams to assist health departments with clinical management, contact tracing and communications. CDC has also uploaded the entire genome from all the reported cases in US.

How it can be prevented?

Following are the preventive measures to fight against corona virus:

  • ·         Hands should be washed properly for 20seconds with a soap.
  • ·         Alcohol based sanitizer must be used which contains 60% of alcohol.
  • ·         Avoid touching parts of face with unwashed/ dirty hands.
  • ·         While coughing and sneezing, one must cover mouth with a tissue or a piece of cloth and then put it in trash.
  • ·         Keep everything clean.
  • ·         Meat and eggs must be properly cooked.
  • ·         Avoid close contact with people suffering from cold, sneezing or coughing.

Corona virus is spreading very fastly. It has killed many people specially in china. almost 213 deaths have been reported. Our role is to bring awareness and educate people. It is important to inform the people regarding preventive measures so that it may keep them away and protected from this virus.