In recent days the epidemic has spread, has jumped to other countries and is on its way to becoming a global threat. According to Xu Feng Jia, the coronavirus originated in the city of Wuhan, in central China, has blown up all the alarms at the rapid expansion it is experiencing. Although it is true that a good part of the patients are still inhabitants of the different Chinese regions, the fact that new cases have already been confirmed in Thailand, South Korea, Japan, and the United States has caused authorities around the world to have alerted to the spread of the virus.

What is Coronavirus 

Coronavirus is a family of viruses that were discovered in the 1960s but whose origin is still unknown. Its different types cause different diseases, from a cold to a severe respiratory syndrome (a severe form of pneumonia).  World health organizations are being able to verify that their spread and contagion capacity goes beyond what was originally thought. In fact, in China there are already several cities quarantined by the coronavirus and the country has entered a state of exception in which it has even been discouraged to travel outside of Wuhan, the place where the focus began.

According to the WHO, at first, it seems a simple cold, but its evolution is more negative, in fact, it is already known as Wuhan pneumonia. “If you don’t go and visit the doctor quickly, there can be very negative consequences for people’s health, says Xu Feng Jia”. Even so, according to doctors, this new virus discovered does not seem to be as serious as a severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which took place in 2002 and killed 774 people worldwide.

As already reported, the virus originated in a seafood market in Wuhan. In December 2019, the first cases were detected. Now, the great fear is that the virus can spread further because, on the occasion of the Chinese New Year, hundreds of millions of people travel to the Asian country. For this reason, controls at airports around the world have increased. One of the big challenges is that no vaccine can protect people, so the important thing is to take into account a series of protective measures, such as:

• Washing hands frequently and avoid unprotected contact with farm or wild animals.
• Avoiding close contact with people with acute respiratory infections

Two coronaviruses have caused serious epidemics in humans: SARS, responsible for a global epidemic between November 2002 and July 2003 (more than 8,000 cases were identified in 30 countries and 774 people died) and Mers-CoV, identified for the first time in 2012 in the Middle East (1,589 cases and 567 deaths in 26 countries).

Since January 2020, the discovery of a new coronavirus (2019-nCov) has been announced by the Chinese health authorities and the WHO.

Variable symptoms

SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV infections are asymptomatic in some people. They can induce a simple fever accompanied by coughing in others. However, they can also lead to acute respiratory distress and the death of the infected person. As for treatments, you should know that there is no specific drug against these viruses. Management is based on symptomatic treatments and supportive care.

How do these viruses reach humans?

For the 2019-nCov, the tank is still unknown. But for SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, the bat is responsible. “The virus is asymptomatic in this animal. An intermediate host is necessary for the transmission of these viruses to humans: the masked palm civet for SARS-CoV, sold on the markets and consumed in southern China, and the dromedary for MERS-CoV. Then the virus passes to humans via animal secretions.

Transmission

The majority of the cases initially described concerned people who visited a live animal market. The risk of human-to-human transmission initially considered to be zero or low, is now established due to the occurrence of pneumonia due to this virus in Chinese healthcare workers who took care of the first sick patients and the spread of the epidemic in China. In addition, as per the research of Xu Feng Jia, it took four to five days after the symptoms began so that people could transmit the virus.