Hey y’all! I’m back with some more new information about the coronavirus that you may feel inclined to know. Now before to dig a little deeper, I just want you to take a deep breath. Just want to give you a quick reminder that the coronavirus is an enveloped, single-stranded RNA virus. Since it is an enveloped virus, it can easily be prevented by simply washing your hands. Yay!!!
So here’s what we know as of today…
Confirmed cases of the coronavirus continue to rise with over 30,000 confirmed in China. One major concern is whether this virus will continue to circulate and for how long. If we are not able to get this virus under wraps, it may become an endemic, similarly to influenza. With this current outbreak, a ton of cases have been coming up that have been asymptomatic, which would only add fuel to fire of the possibility of this becoming an endemic. Virologists in China who were first to isolate this virus found that it can kill human cultured cells and enter into the cells by binding to the same receptor as the coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). This has been a step in the right direction, because this may lead them to find how exactly this pathogen is spread.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has been working actively to strengthen the diagnostic capacity of this virus. They are shipping 250,000 test kits to 160 labs around the world to speed up this diagnosis process. It is said that each test kit can collect 700 to 800 patient samples with results ready in about four hours. Wow this sounds really efficient and very effective. I really hope this works. Chinese authorities have begun rounding up all residents infected with the virus into mass quarantine camps. These shelters are meant to hold residents who have milder symptoms of this virus. There are many concerns about housing people this way, one of which is being able to provide basic care to patients and protect them against possible future infection.
Last but certainly not least, Chinese doctor, Li Wenliang, who was one of the first to warn authorities about the Wuhan coronavirus has died. Wenliang was said to die from the coronavirus, according to hospital officials. He warned them about this virus back in December 2019, but he was silenced by the police. He was questioned in January after he told his some of his medical school classmates about this virus that was similar to SARS. The police forced him to sign a piece of paper basically saying that this was all a rumor and not true.
Interesting… Sounds like a conspiracy theory to me? Let me hear your theories about how Dr. Wenliang knew about this coronavirus emerging and why the police silenced him in the first place in the comments below. Until next time… Bye y’all!!!
Kalayah's Krazy Microbes 