Coronavirus and its disease ( nCoV2019 & COVID-19 ) By Shaheed Ullah

INTRODUCTION:

            Coronavirus is a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases, i.e., SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome, and MERS, which is Middle East respiratory syndrome. The Coronavirus was identified in the 1960s for the first time. Today's virus is a new form of Coronavirus shortly called nCoV2019. It was recognized in an older man at Wuhan City, Hubei province China on 29th December 2019. There are several other types of this virus that cause different diseases in human beings or animals. It is zoonotic, which means that it can be transmitted from animal to human beings and from human to human through exhaled air or touch. It is believed that this virus has spread at Wuhan live animal market from snakes and bats and other kinds of animals to human beings. The structure of novel and old Coronavirus are spiracle and Corona-like. Corona is actually the spherical layer of light around the Sun during the complete solar eclipse. The word Corona is derived from the word related to the crown (Crown of the king). There are mushrooms type spikes of glycoproteins on the surface of its viral envelope. The genome of novel Coronavirus containing a considerable strain of RNA, but this RNA does not act like RNA of HIV or other viruses, promoting their central dogma by reverse transcription. Rather this RNA act itself as a messenger RNA. This virus caused COVID-19 which became a pandemic in humans and spread in most of the world recognized by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO). There are few preventive measures advised by medical and public health services: washing hands, avoiding groupings, and high contact. Initially, there was no vaccine available for COVID-19, but in late December 2020 and January of 2021, vaccines were developed in different regions of the world and will be distributed worldwide.

BACKGROUND:

In December 2019, fifty to sixty cases of pneumonia were recorded in the City Hospital Wuhan, China. The symptoms and causes of this outbreak were quite similar to those in other respiratory disorders, but the treatment failed to cure the patients. When virology of this disease was studied, the new virus was identified and was called the novel Coronavirus. Novel means "the new".  Some other viruses of this family caused disease in the past, such as SARS,  severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV ), and Middle East respiratory syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) had shown the same symptoms as in these days COVID-19. It was also a pandemic. The rate of deaths called the mortality rate was quite high for SARS compared to COVID-19 and was not spread in the region as this new disease. There were only seven hundred plus deaths in China a few hundred in other countries.

In the same way, MERS Coronavirus was first identified in Saudi Arabia and soon spread in 2012. This epidemic was not as dangerous as COVID-19. It is confirmed by the CDC and WHO that COVID-19 is one of the most dangerous pandemic ever in the modern era. There are about 116,452,000 cases (Increasing day by day) of this disease and more than 2,500,000 deaths (Increasing day by day), many people are being recovered from this disease. The mortality rate is only two percent (2%), but the rate of spread is very much high compared to MERS and SARS. For SARS, the mortality rate was 9.6%, and for MERS, the mortality rate was 34%, which is very high compared to COVID-19. The COVID-19 spread very rapidly, resembling SARS Coronavirus. That's why the virus of this disease is also called SARS-CoV-2. As from history, this virus family's outbreaks usually occur primarily in the winter on a 2- to 3-year cycle.

SYMPTOMS:                 

Symptoms of this disease include flu, fever, dry cough, difficulty in breathing, etc. These are usually confused with the symptoms of other respiratory disorders. This disease can be transmitted to other people through coughing, sneezing, high physical contact, and crowding. The most dangerous thing about this disease is that its transmission is possible even a person is not showing any signs and symptoms of the disease himself. The incubation period (which is the time the nCov2019 attack on the body to the symptom onset) is about eight days, but it can be extended to 14 days before the symptoms appear.

PREVENTION:

There are some preventive measure advised by Public Health Services all over the world, the first and the most common An important method is using face masks and washing hands with soap for about half a minute while the second preventive measure include the use of hand sanitizer which may be an antiseptic spray or gel, the chemical composition of hand sanitizer is;

·         Alcohol, especially isopropyl alcohol or Hydrogen peroxide

·         Aloe Vera gel

·         and a few ml of Coconut oil or other oil.

Some perfumes can also be added for a better smell.  It can be made at home as the prices of these kinds of things automatically rise in the pandemic regions of the world due to high demand.

Note: Not every mask can prevent virus entry to the respiratory tract. Using masks without any necessity can cause other common respiratory disorders than prevent it as it traps the pathogen we sneeze or cough out. Therefore mask should be used when you are ill or visit a place where there is a chance for one to get infected from Coronavirus, i.e., hospitals and crowded areas.

OUTBREAK, EPIDEMIC, OR PANDEMIC:

The outbreak is simply a bunch of similar cases of disease found in a particular area of a region. When it spread in the whole particular region, it becomes an epidemic. On the other hand, when an epidemic becomes international, it is then called a pandemic.  The COVID-19 can be called a pandemic. As of this writing, More than 221 (Almost all) countries affected by Coronavirus disease, including the United States, India, Russia, Brazil, South Korea, Iran, Spain, Germany, France, Turkey, UK, and Italy are on the top list. The total cases are near to cross 130 million in June 2021 around the world, and it may reach above 200 million by the end of this year if not controlled appropriately.

There are over 90,000 cases in China, 29 million cases in the USA, more than 11 million cases in India, 4.5 million cases in Russia, and over 4.2 million cases in the UK (Increasing very rapidly day by day). According to Media and News agencies, the disease is spread from China to the whole world, but the countries mentioned above are astoundingly affected.

 

 

VACCINE AND PATHOGENESIS:

World Health Organization (WHO) and other disease control authorities tried to make a vaccine for the disease since the initial months of this pandemic. Finally, in late December 2020 and January 2021, about eleven different pharmaceutical companies worldwide made COVID-19 vaccines available in different brands. The vaccination process has been started in different regions of the world, including Pakistan. The difficulty in vaccine development was due to the mutated behavior of novel Coronavirus and its mechanism of action. The Coronavirus found in different patients of COVID-19  is not a hundred percent the same. It is different due to mutation. This was a challenging job for medical and other laboratory experts to make vaccine for such virus.

In contrast, on the other hand, there was no known pathogenesis. Although some medical professionals claim that novel Coronavirus attaches its glycoprotein to the angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 receptor and as soon as identified by the cell are absorbed to the cell by endocytosis. It holds the cell biosynthetic machinery and makes the humungous virus's desired proteins. As many viruses are produced inside the cell, the cell is finally destroyed by apoptosis. It destroys the respiratory system's epithelial cells and causes smooth muscle contraction, due to which difficulty in breathing is observed. It also secretes mucus from the mucous secreting cells in a very high quantity, which fills the alveoli, causes difficulty in breathing, and appeared as flu. In contrast, the defense of the body against viral destruction causes pyrexia which is simply the elevated body temperature.

PRE-PLANNED OR REAL:

Some medical field experts and other independent journalists worldwide declared that this pandemic is pre-planned by some countries, i.e., the US and Israel, and wanted to start a biological war that is far more dangerous than a military war.  The people who claimed it said: "There is no single cause of Coronavirus in the US, although if people are suffering from this disease, they are not in such high number as shown in the news and other sources". "No one is allowed to visit the hospital to find out the situation of the COVID-19 and the exact number of patients" said journalists of various regions in the United States.

If this is not pre-planned, then why is there humungous spread in the countries threatening for the United States, i.e., China, Iran, Russia, and more precisely, Italy and Spain, which are first-class supporters of China in Europe.

Some people claim that the coronavirus pandemic is a cover for a plan to implant trackable microchips and that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is behind it. Mr. Gates said in an interview that eventually, "we will have some digital certificates." which would be used to show who'd recovered, tested, and ultimately received a vaccine. That digital certificate will be used to deal with Airports, hospitals, banks, universities, and other necessary places.

CONSEQUENCES:

The COVID-19 struck humanity as harder as by influenza pandemic in 1918. The disease judged the Country's power. By facing such incidents, China responded very cleverly. In just 15 days of Coronavirus disease, they constructed a special hospital for COVID-19 and made a golden record. The struggle helped them recover more than 80,000 ( Almost all ) people out of eighty-nine thousand 89,000, and many are under treatment yet.

The situation elicited terrible consequences on daily life. It disturbed the health and the education, and economy of the different countries, especially China. Due to this pandemic, examinations of schools and colleges worldwide are postponed, and about a billion students are affected in their studies due to academic institution closure. Business people and large company holders found this situation a golden one. They raised the prices of various essential personal preventive equipment (PPEs) such as masks, antiseptics, and other required things. Shame on them!

The COVID-19 brought xenophobia which means, fear from strangers and foreigners. It results in racism, and everyone hates the Chinese just that they have spread the disease or disease produced in their Country or from their Country. "This is a Chinese virus, "said the president of the US (Donald Trump). Although this new disease is a great challenge to humanity at the same time, it opened the window toward the invention and study of new things, awaken the human being and pave the way for the mobilization of humanity against biological war and the production of vaccines.  Everyone is active because the world is at war.

 

References: CDC, WHO, BBC, PubMed, NCBI, NLM, Google Scholar, and Wikipedia.

 

By: Shaheed Ullah - Khyber Medical University (KMU) - Peshawar

Email: shaheedullahpaf@gmail.com  (If you need this article in pdf click the download button below).

NOTE: This essay is first written in March 2020 and was last updated in March 2021 for the first time and needs to be updated repeatedly!

 #pknntv.com #pknntv.blogspot.com #pknntv.xyz