What is a virus?
A virus is a small infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism.
While not inside an infected cell or in the process of infecting a cell, viruses exist in the form of independent particles, consisting of Genetic material, i.e. long molecules of DNA or RNA that encode the structure of the proteins by which the virus acts. The shapes of these virus particles range from simple helical forms for some species to more complex structures for others.The origins of viruses in the are unclear. Viruses undergo genetic change by several mechanisms.
Viruses are basically classified under two categories
- DNA Virus
The genome replication of most DNA viruses takes place in the cell’s nucleas.
- RNA Virus
Replication usually takes place in the cytoplasm.
This is structure of Chicken Pox virus
What is coronavirus?
Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses out of which only 6 viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). The name corona was given due to the shape of the of the outer covering which resembles to a crown. Corona is the Latin name for “Crown”.
A novel coronavirus (nCoV) is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans.
How it is spread?
Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people.
Detailed investigations found that SARS-CoV was transmitted from civet cats to humans and MERS-CoV from dromedary camels to humans.
Several known coronaviruses are circulating in animals that have not yet infected humans.
Symptoms of coronavirus:
Common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, runny nose, headache seasonal flu shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.
In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death.
The incubation period of the coronavirus is 2-11 days so it means that if you are affected with the coronavirus main take 2 to 11 days show the symptoms.
Standard recommendations to prevent infection spread include regular hand washing, covering mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, thoroughly cooking meat and eggs.
Avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing.
If you are infected with symptoms showing presence of coronavirus ,it is advised to wear a mask but if you are not, infected with coronavirus the only wearing mask is not going to protect you.
Cure of the coronavirus:
Till date there is no vaccine available for coronavirusIt is expected that it will take one year to develop vaccine for coronavirus.
In 2001 when SARS virus was spread in China it took 20 months to develop vaccine.It is also said that if your immune system is strong you will be able to recover it.
What is the effect of corona virus across the globe?
25 countries across the world has been reported the the coronavirus infection . The first three case was reported in Kerala state of India also. According to NDTV news six cities in China has been quarantined.50 million peoples in China are quarantined. Australia and Singapore banned Chinese tourist in their country. Russia,Mongolia and Nepal closed border with China. It is estimated that China will loss nearly 60 billion due to the temporary trade Hault. Thus 5 trillion economy will become nearly 3.8 trillion economy and Chinese GDP will be slowed down by 1.5 %.
Is coronavirus is that much dangerous?
Below data available as per date of the February 5 2020
China’s National Health Commission reported that there were 2009 new confirmed cases and 142 additional deaths as of Feb. 15. That brings the total number of cases in mainland China to 68,500, and the total deaths so far to 1665, according the latest statistics from the commission released Sunday.
An American passenger tested positive for a second time after the cruise ship operator for MS Westerdam requested another test.
China sends more than 25,000 medical workers to Hubei, state-owned Xinhua reported.
Mortality and Contagious
The mortality rate of the coronavirus is about 2 %that means if you are affected with coronavirus 98% chance that you will survive. But still it is early to predict the and state the mortality rate as of now.
The people who died due to infection of the coronavirus most of them were having weak immune system or aged people.
Contagious is the term which is defined that how much fast virus will spread. In nature, in most of the cases it is observed that the virus which is more contagious has low mortality rate. The ebola virus which was spread in Africa has 70 % mortality rate. Virus was not that contagious but it killed nearly 3500 people in Africa. The common cold has mortality rate of the 0.01% it means out of the 10,000 people infected there is a chance that one person will die due to this infection. SARS virus which affected China had 10 percentage mortality rate. The number of people affected by the virus was around 8k. And due to novel coronavirus is more than 45k. It is observed that the novel corona virus is 6 times more contagious then SARS virus.
Here one thing to be clarified that less mortality rate that doesn’t mean the number of people died is less. The Spanish flu which occurred during 1918-20. The number of the people affected by that virus was around 500 million and its mortality rate was around 10% so nearly 50 million peoples were killed.
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