Today, everyone in the world is currently dealing with the coronavirus disease 2019, or popularly called by COVID-19. COVID-19 is an illness that is very infectious and caused by a coronavirus. The first case of the outbreak of coronavirus infection was reported from Wuhan, a large city located in Hubei province, China. Now, the disease affects more than 150 countries in the world. Maybe some of you are curious about the origin of the virus. While most of you want to know how does the corona become the most trending topic all over the world right now, this article will provide you with some vital information regarding COVID-19.
Introduction to a new virus
The coronavirus causes the diseases known by SARS-CoV-2. SARS stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. These kinds of viruses usually attack all mammals’ respiratory systems. Most of them affect animals, but sometimes when there is contact between animals to humans, the viruses could enter the humans’ bodies. There are four ranks in the coronavirus family, which are alpha, beta, delta, and gamma. Only two of them that could cause a major outbreak in the world, the alpha, and beta. In the past, two respiratory diseases were triggered by these viruses. The first case happened in the mainland of China and Hongkong at 2002. The virus caused SARS illness. While another example occurred in 2012 in Saudi Arabia that was known as MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome).
The origin of the virus
It is said earlier that the coronavirus initially attacks animals, but a human could also be infected once they have in contact with the animals, which has the virus inside of their bodies. Bats are the most common carriers for the virus. However, bats are seldom to infect humans with the coronavirus directly. For the case from Wuhan, the outbreak was originated from the seafood market from Wuhan. But, some health experts said that they had not concluded the original source of the virus that created the 2019 corona disease began. It is different from the COVID-19; the SARS virus that infected China in 2002 came from cats, while the MERS virus that attacked Saudi Arabia in 2012 thought to be caused by camels. Besides curing the patients of COVID-19, specialists are also still studying about the new coronavirus and how they began to spread from among humans.
The transmission of the virus
Although some scientists said that they have not known how exactly the virus could be transmitted for one body to another, it is believed that the coronavirus could pass from the animals that carry the disease to humans. Then, the transmission of the virus that passes among humans could occur by droplets from mouth or nose. After entering the bodies from the mouth or nose, the virus could infect the lungs of the patients. The reaction from the patients would be different. It would depend on the strength of the immune system inside the bodies of the patients. Some of the patients would experience mild symptoms, while others might catch more severe symptoms. Most of the people who would encounter severe symptoms are older people or individuals who already have respiratory illnesses or other previous diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular sickness, and so on. The patients who catch the COVID-19 will be recovered by itself only if they have an excellent immune system to fight against the corona.
Knowing the symptoms
Since the coronavirus affects the respiratory systems, the main symptoms are not far from everything related to the respiratory organs. Most of the people who suffer from COVID-19 will have flu-like symptoms, such as fever, cough, and shortness of breathing. These symptoms are included in mild symptoms that occur in some patients of COVID-19. The most severe symptoms that might happen are pneumonia, respiratory failure, and death. However, although we have already known about the common symptoms of COVID-19, it could be challenging to differentiate the symptoms of them and other respiratory diseases. Therefore, an advance medical observation is needed to conclude whether the patients are having the COVID-19 or not. There are some molecular tests that the patients should take to make sure that the virus really infects them. Finally, the doctors and nurses could do further treatments to cure the illness caused by the coronavirus.
