Coronavirus. Now after reading that, how does it make you? Does it give you chills? Does it make you feel uncomfortable? Maybe it has you questioning whether you have contracted this deadly virus. I know there’s a lot of crazy stuff being said about this virus. Well, I’m here to give you the real scoop, with ACTUAL facts.
Let me give you a little history on coronaviruses. Human coronaviruses have been around for a long time and are known to resemble the common cold. Coronaviruses are “large, enveloped, positive-strand RNA viruses” with the alpha and beta genera infecting humans. Coronaviruses are mainly seen in bats, which suggests that they are the reservoirs for the virus. Now you’re probably wondering if this virus is in bats, how the h*** did humans get it?
This zoonotic virus was spread at seafood and animal market in Wuhan, China. In December, Chinese authorities reported multiple cases of this pneumonia-like disease with symptoms such as fever, difficulty in breathing, cough and lesions on both lungs. Since these cases, they have closed the market for sanitation, disinfection as well as collecting specimens from the environment for further testing.
We have learned that the coronavirus causes respiratory illness and can spread from human-to-human contact as well as saliva droplets. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a “public-health emergency of international concern” (PHEIC), which is their highest level of global health emergency. WHO has reported almost 8,000 cases in 18 countries including, China, Japan, Thailand, Australia and the United States. Wow, that’s so close to home. I know many of us are taking extreme cautions to make sure we don’t catch this nasty bug. Another huge concern about the coronavirus, is that there have been cases reported that have been asymptomatic. This very troublesome, because if there are asymptomatic carriers of this virus, then these individuals can spread this virus unknowingly, which makes it difficult to contain.
Here’s something to make you take a sigh of relief. There are working out vaccines and antivirals to prevent the further spread of this disease. Thank god for vaccines, right? So for all you Anti-Vaxxers out there, you may want to rethink that lifestyle. Apparently, coronaviruses come from the same family of viruses that cause Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). So what microbiologists are doing is trying to see if the antivirals and vaccines that work for these viruses will work for this new coronavirus. Do you think they will be successful? Let me know in the comments below!
Kalayah's Krazy Microbes 