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Corona the silent killer!
#corona#covid#infection#time#pandemic#Subratagolapi
by
Subrata Mukherjee
in love with Golapi Subratagolapi.
The New World(Natun Prithibi)
1wwwsubratagolapi.com
নতুন পৃথিবী।
The COVID-19 basically a respiratory disease is sweeping the globe with its extreme force. The virus is also known as SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) that generally lives in bats and jumps to humans through an intermediate host.
According to the World Health Organization there are many diseases earmarked as threats causing epidemic and which have no fool proof preventive measures. These are Ebola, Zika, SARS. They reproduce very quickly and spread through random mutations making a catastrophic version
নতুন পৃথিবী।
About the Virus
COVID-19, a first case of pneumonia was discovered in the province of Wuhan in China in December 2019. The name of the virus is SARS-CoV-2, since it is a variant of the coronavirus that caused SARS in 2003. It is named as the new pathogen causing Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-(SARS). COVID-19 is capable of spreading through contact through human-to-human. World Health Organization reported that it spreads through sneezing, coughing and germs left on inanimate objects. Human-to-human transmission is seen between and in the close contacts.
The virus spreads through the nose and mouth predominantly and eyes which can be susceptible the virus. The illness is capable of spreading before the expression of symptoms.
Coronavirus belongs to a family of viruses called Coronaviridae and order Nidovirales, which infect mammals and birds. SARS and SARS-CoV-2 both belong to the same genus Betacoronavirus. They do not infect reptiles and arthropods. Genetic sequencing has confirmed that the new virus has a uniform genome with very limited genetic variation and is similar to the that exists and circulates in bats. Incubation period i.e the entry of the pathogens and the expression of symptoms between 10 to 14 days.
নতুন পৃথিবী।
The SARS-CoV-2 virus lives in Chinese horseshoe bats and ramifies as natural hosts and is transmitted through intermediate hosts to humans. According to scientists as they had made it clear from the research the virus has crossed the species barrier from the bats to pangolins to humans and therefore the chain of infection has received its own entry.
It should be noted that civet was confirmed as the intermediate host of SARS as the SARS coronavirus shared 99 percent of genome similarity with the civet coronavirus and with a genetic similarity of more than 96 percent was found in the coronavirus of bats. The bats could not have passed the virus directly to humans as there are differences between the connection of transmission of the two viruses. This means there is an intermediate host.
However, it is not clear yet whether the other animals can be infected with the covid 19 and can be hosts to transmit the virus to the humans.
Characteristics of Covid Virus.
SARS, MERS and Ebola viruses were contagious only when the symptoms appeared in the human body and it is therefore easy to keep the infected persons isolated from the healthy humans but with COVID-19 there are symptom-less spreaders or super-spreaders or unknown factors. In that case it becomes difficult to identify the the time of infection and it’s dissemination. It is believed that the healthy humans or the humans without the symptoms of the infection can act as super-spreaders. If a virus infects a person it will run its course naturally and die out but if the patient comes into contact with another human, the infection spreads again and this way it becomes exposed and open in the people, creating pandemic.
Reason for dissemination of Covid 19
COVID-19 spreads easily in crowded confined or may be in the open spaces at homes, schools, institutions, shopping malls, stations, platforms, hospitals, ships and those places where people have access and to be in large numbers. When a sick person coughs, sneezes, talks or breathes, the virus gets transmitted through droplets and can travel to five to six feet.
COVID-19 Versus Other Coronaviruses
SARS-CoV-2 is new to humans. It has a similar genetic sequence to other coronaviruses that live in bats and similar animals yet it is distinct from SARS and MERS coronaviruses in the process of incubation and dissemination.
SARS coronavirus primarily affect the lungs whereas COVID-19 creates an upper respiratory tract infection from the throat. People with low immunity, especially, the elderly and the children or those with pre-existing diseases are more prone to be infected.
It is confirmed that COVID-19 is more contagious than SARS and MERS. The transmissibility or severity of COVID-19 is not yet confirmed with certainty. People above the age of 60 are at risk of life although deaths are happening in every age group.The fatality rates are higher for the people with cardiovascular disease, diabetes,cancer, hypertension and chronic respiratory diseases.
According to the researchers, this new virus is different from all the other coronaviruses as it is potential to attack on the human cells. A mutated gene in virus similar to the one found in HIV, Ebola and avian influenza, is found exclusively in abundance in SARS-CoV-2.
There was a global concern and subsequent race to invent a vaccine and ultimately it has been materialised. To help develop diagnostics, the full genome of SARS-CoV-2 has been detected and published. Drugs targeting the ‘furin’ enzyme will prevent the virus replication in the host. The spike of the virus is also the main target of neutralizing antibodies and very important for vaccine and therapeutic design. Blocking ACE2 can kill SARS-CoV-2 as per the research by German and Russian scientists.
Certain viruses can form biofilm just like the bacterial biofilms which are protective mechanisms against the immune system and help the cells to spread from cell to cell. Viral biofilms act as major mechanisms of propagation and replication for some viruses involved in many persistent viral infections. A study by researchers and the scientists have shown that microbial biofilms work like protective clothing against extreme environmental conditions.
Viral genes unique to SARS-CoV-2 are targeted for developing diagnostic assays. Initially, the assay was developed from genetic similarities between SARS-CoV-2 and SARS and was later refined after the whole genome of the virus was sequenced and analysed. The current SARS-CoV-2 assay works by detecting the E gene of the virus which codes for the viral envelope and the RdRP gene that codes for the enzyme – RNA-dependent RNA polymerase that ultimately helps the viral RNA to complete replication from an RNA template.
Blood parameters are analyzed in infected patients and Polymerase Chain Reaction technique is used for pathogen detection and to check for the presence of specific antibodies. Working with dangerous pathogens involves great risks for the researchers, scientists and other medical professionals. Such research work should be conducted in the most isolated environment situated away from densely populated areas. Non-invasive method includes saliva testing, and a swab test of the mouth, nose and throat are also done with the required pre cautions.
It was found that SARS-CoV-2 could be transmitted through multiple channels.Oral swabs followed by molecular diagnosis confirmed the presence of the virus in the infected patients. Many coronaviruses can also be transmitted through the oral-fecal route as confirmed by the presence of the virus in blood and anal swabs in a later stage of the infection. Both the molecular and serological tests are needed to confirm the infection.
A PCR-based diagnostic protocol for COVID-19 using swabbed samples from a patient’s nose and throat, was first put forth by a group of German scientists. Thereafter, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has developed its own assay. Rapid turnaround time for COVID-19 test results helps to get detection of route to the ramifications of the virus.
However, this is not the first global pandemic and it certainly will not be the last. It is challenging to predict pandemics due to global hyperconnectedness, trade, travel, changing climate and unplanned urbanization and indiscriminate deforestation. Changes in temperature and rainfall can affect agricultural practices and these in turn can intensify the spread of disease-causing pathogens and similar agents. Altered human behaviour, environmental degradation, uncontrolled population growth and unjustified migration, damaging freshwater resources and non effective solid waste management can increase the spread of vector-borne diseases more in the near future.
Black Death in Europe wiped out many million people in the 14th century. With the development of cheaper and faster rail and air travel, infectious diseases can be able to spread across the globe in the 21st century.This is attributed to the tremendous advancements and use of science and technology.
The global health systems are now facing tough challenges despite being more prepared than earlier time. Epidemics have turned to a giant pandemic!
Difference is that in all the previous epidemics a certain part of the country or the continent or the world was affected but this time the entire world is equally affected irrespective of the class and rank of the nations as the developing or the develpoed ones!
নতুন পৃথিবী।
The New World (Natun Prithibi)
© subrata
by
Subrata Mukherjee
in love with Golapi Subratagolapi.
The New World(Natun Prithibi)
1wwwsubratagolapi.com
নতুন পৃথিবী।
The COVID-19 basically a respiratory disease is sweeping the globe with its extreme force. The virus is also known as SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) that generally lives in bats and jumps to humans through an intermediate host.
According to the World Health Organization there are many diseases earmarked as threats causing epidemic and which have no fool proof preventive measures. These are Ebola, Zika, SARS. They reproduce very quickly and spread through random mutations making a catastrophic version
নতুন পৃথিবী।
About the Virus
COVID-19, a first case of pneumonia was discovered in the province of Wuhan in China in December 2019. The name of the virus is SARS-CoV-2, since it is a variant of the coronavirus that caused SARS in 2003. It is named as the new pathogen causing Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-(SARS). COVID-19 is capable of spreading through contact through human-to-human. World Health Organization reported that it spreads through sneezing, coughing and germs left on inanimate objects. Human-to-human transmission is seen between and in the close contacts.
The virus spreads through the nose and mouth predominantly and eyes which can be susceptible the virus. The illness is capable of spreading before the expression of symptoms.
Coronavirus belongs to a family of viruses called Coronaviridae and order Nidovirales, which infect mammals and birds. SARS and SARS-CoV-2 both belong to the same genus Betacoronavirus. They do not infect reptiles and arthropods. Genetic sequencing has confirmed that the new virus has a uniform genome with very limited genetic variation and is similar to the that exists and circulates in bats. Incubation period i.e the entry of the pathogens and the expression of symptoms between 10 to 14 days.
নতুন পৃথিবী।
The SARS-CoV-2 virus lives in Chinese horseshoe bats and ramifies as natural hosts and is transmitted through intermediate hosts to humans. According to scientists as they had made it clear from the research the virus has crossed the species barrier from the bats to pangolins to humans and therefore the chain of infection has received its own entry.
It should be noted that civet was confirmed as the intermediate host of SARS as the SARS coronavirus shared 99 percent of genome similarity with the civet coronavirus and with a genetic similarity of more than 96 percent was found in the coronavirus of bats. The bats could not have passed the virus directly to humans as there are differences between the connection of transmission of the two viruses. This means there is an intermediate host.
However, it is not clear yet whether the other animals can be infected with the covid 19 and can be hosts to transmit the virus to the humans.
Characteristics of Covid Virus.
SARS, MERS and Ebola viruses were contagious only when the symptoms appeared in the human body and it is therefore easy to keep the infected persons isolated from the healthy humans but with COVID-19 there are symptom-less spreaders or super-spreaders or unknown factors. In that case it becomes difficult to identify the the time of infection and it’s dissemination. It is believed that the healthy humans or the humans without the symptoms of the infection can act as super-spreaders. If a virus infects a person it will run its course naturally and die out but if the patient comes into contact with another human, the infection spreads again and this way it becomes exposed and open in the people, creating pandemic.
Reason for dissemination of Covid 19
COVID-19 spreads easily in crowded confined or may be in the open spaces at homes, schools, institutions, shopping malls, stations, platforms, hospitals, ships and those places where people have access and to be in large numbers. When a sick person coughs, sneezes, talks or breathes, the virus gets transmitted through droplets and can travel to five to six feet.
COVID-19 Versus Other Coronaviruses
SARS-CoV-2 is new to humans. It has a similar genetic sequence to other coronaviruses that live in bats and similar animals yet it is distinct from SARS and MERS coronaviruses in the process of incubation and dissemination.
SARS coronavirus primarily affect the lungs whereas COVID-19 creates an upper respiratory tract infection from the throat. People with low immunity, especially, the elderly and the children or those with pre-existing diseases are more prone to be infected.
It is confirmed that COVID-19 is more contagious than SARS and MERS. The transmissibility or severity of COVID-19 is not yet confirmed with certainty. People above the age of 60 are at risk of life although deaths are happening in every age group.The fatality rates are higher for the people with cardiovascular disease, diabetes,cancer, hypertension and chronic respiratory diseases.
According to the researchers, this new virus is different from all the other coronaviruses as it is potential to attack on the human cells. A mutated gene in virus similar to the one found in HIV, Ebola and avian influenza, is found exclusively in abundance in SARS-CoV-2.
There was a global concern and subsequent race to invent a vaccine and ultimately it has been materialised. To help develop diagnostics, the full genome of SARS-CoV-2 has been detected and published. Drugs targeting the ‘furin’ enzyme will prevent the virus replication in the host. The spike of the virus is also the main target of neutralizing antibodies and very important for vaccine and therapeutic design. Blocking ACE2 can kill SARS-CoV-2 as per the research by German and Russian scientists.
Certain viruses can form biofilm just like the bacterial biofilms which are protective mechanisms against the immune system and help the cells to spread from cell to cell. Viral biofilms act as major mechanisms of propagation and replication for some viruses involved in many persistent viral infections. A study by researchers and the scientists have shown that microbial biofilms work like protective clothing against extreme environmental conditions.
Viral genes unique to SARS-CoV-2 are targeted for developing diagnostic assays. Initially, the assay was developed from genetic similarities between SARS-CoV-2 and SARS and was later refined after the whole genome of the virus was sequenced and analysed. The current SARS-CoV-2 assay works by detecting the E gene of the virus which codes for the viral envelope and the RdRP gene that codes for the enzyme – RNA-dependent RNA polymerase that ultimately helps the viral RNA to complete replication from an RNA template.
Blood parameters are analyzed in infected patients and Polymerase Chain Reaction technique is used for pathogen detection and to check for the presence of specific antibodies. Working with dangerous pathogens involves great risks for the researchers, scientists and other medical professionals. Such research work should be conducted in the most isolated environment situated away from densely populated areas. Non-invasive method includes saliva testing, and a swab test of the mouth, nose and throat are also done with the required pre cautions.
It was found that SARS-CoV-2 could be transmitted through multiple channels.Oral swabs followed by molecular diagnosis confirmed the presence of the virus in the infected patients. Many coronaviruses can also be transmitted through the oral-fecal route as confirmed by the presence of the virus in blood and anal swabs in a later stage of the infection. Both the molecular and serological tests are needed to confirm the infection.
A PCR-based diagnostic protocol for COVID-19 using swabbed samples from a patient’s nose and throat, was first put forth by a group of German scientists. Thereafter, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has developed its own assay. Rapid turnaround time for COVID-19 test results helps to get detection of route to the ramifications of the virus.
However, this is not the first global pandemic and it certainly will not be the last. It is challenging to predict pandemics due to global hyperconnectedness, trade, travel, changing climate and unplanned urbanization and indiscriminate deforestation. Changes in temperature and rainfall can affect agricultural practices and these in turn can intensify the spread of disease-causing pathogens and similar agents. Altered human behaviour, environmental degradation, uncontrolled population growth and unjustified migration, damaging freshwater resources and non effective solid waste management can increase the spread of vector-borne diseases more in the near future.
Black Death in Europe wiped out many million people in the 14th century. With the development of cheaper and faster rail and air travel, infectious diseases can be able to spread across the globe in the 21st century.This is attributed to the tremendous advancements and use of science and technology.
The global health systems are now facing tough challenges despite being more prepared than earlier time. Epidemics have turned to a giant pandemic!
Difference is that in all the previous epidemics a certain part of the country or the continent or the world was affected but this time the entire world is equally affected irrespective of the class and rank of the nations as the developing or the develpoed ones!
নতুন পৃথিবী।
The New World (Natun Prithibi)
© subrata
