corona virus all in one

COVID-19 ALL IN ONE 

1) WHAT IS CORONA VIRUS?

  

 A a family of viruses that cause disease in animals. Seven, including the new virus, have made the jump to humans, but most just cause cold-like symptoms.

 covid-19 is closely related to severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) which swept around the world in 2002 to 2003. That virus infected around 8,000 people and killed about 800 but it soon ran itself out, largely because most of those infected were seriously ill so it was easier to control.

Another coronavirus is Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers), cases of which have been occurring sporadically since it first emerged in 2012 - there have been around 2,500 cases and nearly 900 deaths. 

Covid-19 is different to these two other coronaviruses in that the spectrum of disease is broad, with around 80 per cent of cases leading to a mild infection. There may also be many people carrying the disease and displaying no symptoms, making it even harder to control. 

So far, around 20 per cent of Covid-19 cases have been classed as "severe" and the current death rate varies between 0.7 per cent and 3.4 per cent depending on the location and, crucially, access to good hospital care.

Scientists in China believe that Covid-19 has mutated into two strains, one more aggressive than the other, which could make developing a vaccine more complicated.        

  2)HOW IS IT START?

The disease appears to have originated from a Wuhan seafood market where wild animals, including marmots, birds, rabbits, bats and snakes, are traded illegally. Coronaviruses are known to jump from animals to humans, so it’s thought that the first people infected with the disease – a group primarily made up of stallholders from the seafood market – contracted it from contact with animals.

The hunt for the animal source of Covid-19 is still unknown, although there are some strong contenders. A team of virologists at the Wuhan Institute for Virology released a detailed paper showing that the new coronaviruses' genetic makeup is 96 per cent identical to that of a coronavirus found in bats, while a study published on March 26 argues that genetic sequences of coronavirus in pangolins are between 88.5 and 92.4 per cent similar to the human virus. Some early cases of Covid-19, however, appear to have inflicted people with no link to the Wuhan market at all, suggesting that the initial route of human infection may pre-date the market cases.

The Wuhan market was shut down for inspection and cleaning on January 1, but by then it appears that Covid-19 was already starting to spread beyond the market itself. On January 21, the WHO Western Pacific office said the disease was also being transmitted between humans – evidence of which is apparent after medical staff became infected with the virus. Since then, evidence of widespread human-to-human transmission outside of China has been well established, making chances of containing the virus much harder.

3)CORONA VIRAS WORLD MAP

coronaviras[LIVE]map

more detals from፦

4)SPREDING OF CORONA VIRUS

The coronavirus - known as COVID-19 - spreads from person to person in close proximity, similar to other respiratory illnesses, such as the flu.

Droplets of bodily fluids - such as saliva or mucus - from an infected person are dispersed in the air or on surfaces by coughing or sneezing.

These droplets can come into direct contact with other people or can infect those who pick them up by touching infected surfaces and then their face.

According to scientists, coughs and sneezes can travel several feet and stay suspended in the air for up to 10 minutes.

It is not yet known how long the virus can survive outside a host but, in other viruses, it ranges from a few hours to months.

Transmission is of particular concern on transport, where droplets containing the coronavirus could pass between passengers or via surfaces like aeroplane seats and armrests.

The incubation period of the coronavirus, the length of time before symptoms appear, is between one and 14 days.

Although not yet confirmed, Chinese health authorities believe the virus can be transmitted before symptoms appear.

This would have major implications for containment measures, according to Gerard Krause, head of the Department for Epidemiology at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection.

"It's unusual for respiratory diseases transmissible even before the first symptoms have occurred," he told Al Jazeera.

"But the consequences is that if it happens then they have no public health means to sort out or to identify people at risk of transmitting, because they don't even know that they're ill yet."

5)what we can do for kill coronavirus