What is Coronavirus?

Coronaviruses abbreviated as CoV are a large family of viruses. These viruses cause different illnesses. These illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases for example 

1: Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) (outbreak in South Korea in 2015)  

2: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). (2002-2003)  

3: A novel coronavirus (nCoV) is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans But triggered an outbreak in China in December 2019, sparking international concern.

Coronaviruses are zoonotic. Zoonotic diseases also known as zoonosis (plural zoonoses) diseases. They are highly infectious. These diseases are caused by bacteria, viruses, and parasites that spread from animals (usually vertebrates) to humans.  

Detailed investigations found that a specific kind of animal transmitted specific kind of either virus, bacteria, or parasite to animals.

1: SARS-CoV was transmitted from civet cats to humans. (2002-2003)

2: MERS-CoV from dromedary camels to humans.

But it is said that there are several known Coronaviruses circulating in animals that have not yet infected humans.

Symptoms

In humans, coronaviruses typically cause a respiratory infection. This infection ranges from mild to severe flu-like symptoms, but the truth is that the exact symptoms vary depending on the type of coronavirus in humans.

The four common human coronaviruses can cause some similar symptoms. According to the CDC, some people to develop

• runny nose
• headache
• cough
• sore throat
• fever

But in a subset of individuals, including those with the cardiopulmonary disease (a medical term which is used to describe a range of serious disorders that particularly affect the heart (cardio-) and lungs (-pulmonar”) or a weakened immune system, the viral infection can progress to a more severe lower-respiratory infection such as pneumonia ( a particular infection that inflames the air sacs in one or both lungs) or bronchitis ( it is an inflammation of the bronchial tubes, these tubes are airways that carry air to your lungs) 

symptoms of MERS include

• fever
• coughing
• shortness of breath
• pneumonia

symptoms of SARS include

• fever
• chills
• body aches
• pneumonia

The novel coronavirus causes symptoms similar to those of other coronaviruses, triggering

• fever
• cough
• difficulty breathing in most patients

Rarer symptoms include

• dizziness
• nausea
• vomiting
• runny nose

Mortality rate

According to The New York Times, SARS had a mortality rate of 9.6% in the early 2000s outbreaks.

The CDC noted that MERS has an estimated mortality rate between 30% and 40%

More recently as of February 2020, scientists estimate the 2019-nCoV mortality rate at 2%, although that figure may be somewhat skewed by the severity of the cases studied so far.

The world is still fighting with the Corona Virus even after 9 months. According to the worldometers total cases of Corona virus are 18,716,956 and total deaths are 704,632. The total recovered cases are 11,936,194.