In December 2019, doctors in China began to notice a new type of viral pneumonia. The patients were people who worked at or visited a seafood market in Wuhan, China, and had fever, cough and difficulty in breathing.
Since then hundreds of cases have been reported and the death toll has risen to 17.
Moreover, a case has also been reported in Thailand last week in two Chinese tourists, and Japan also reported a case last Thursday, again in a Chinese tourist. In addition, cases have been reported in America and South Korea as well.
What is the Coronavirus?
Experts are now considering declaring a public health emergency, and health authorities in China are closely monitoring the situation. According to them the virus is nothing new.
Coronaviruses are a big group of viruses that cause illnesses such as the common cold and gastrointestinal infections, and diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
The name corona comes from the protein in the virus that is used to penetrate the human.
How does the virus spread?
Even though authorities are still unsure how the virus spreads, it was initially believed to spread directly from the Wuhan seafood market.
However, since some cases did not link to the market, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that the possibility for human-to-human transmission should not be ruled out.
Since then, China’s National Health Commission has confirmed that the virus has been passed from person-to-person.
Fever and respiratory symptoms were normally identified in people with the virus.
"Cough, shortness of breath, rapid breathing, sore throat, runny nose. A bit like the presentation of the common cold but obviously more severe," Dr Irani Thevarajan, an infectious disease physician said, while speaking about the symptoms of the disease.
She further highlighted that the people who died due to the virus had other medical conditions, and that there is a possibility that this played a role.
Leave a comment
0 Comments