What is Coronavirus?
Viruses are known as the simplest organisms that can proliferate themselves. But this proliferation can take place only inside an alive organism. Which is the main cause of why viruses spread amongst humans or animals, to find a cell in which they can live and proliferate.
Coronavirus is a type of virus, that is named after corona, which means “crown” in Latin, because it has a crown-like shape. There are a larger group of coronavirus that consists of nearly 20 viruses that cause upper respiratory tract infections along with a runny nose.
Many other viruses in the coronavirus family cause milder diseases with milder symptoms than the new Covid-19. Therefore, coronaviruses have so far not caused a major outbreak when it comes to illnesses such as commonly known flu.
Coronaviruses, which have evolved over time just like all types of other viruses, have begun to cause more serious health problems that show flu-like symptoms since 2002. Coronaviruses are contagious zoonotic viruses that have the risk of spreading amongst humans and animals. It is thought that in the past, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, known as MERS passed on from camels and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome known as SARS from civet cats to human beings.
The new generation Coronavirus, called Covid-19, which first appeared in China as of December 2019, has affected the whole world, especially Italy, Spain, Iran, UK and France, due to its rapid infectious feature. This new generation that is named as Covid-19 has currently infected about 8 million people, and has caused death of approximately 500,000 people.
How does Coronavirus spread?
This virus is transmitted by contact with the eyes, mouth, and nose areas after contact with the micro-droplets received by coughing, sneezing from individuals who may be asymptomatic carriers or basically contaminated people. The virus settles in the respiratory system. Recent studies have shown that people who are asymptomatic carriers are also able to contaminate other people.
What are the symptoms of the new Coronavirus (Covid-19)?
The new Coronavirus creates a disease characterized by fever, dry cough, and difficulty in breathing as it progresses. In addition to these, different complaints such as sore throat, headache nausea-vomiting, diarrhea, runny nose, muscle-joint pain, and loss of appetite can also be seen. While the disease does not cause any severe complaints in some young and healthy people, it can be observed with milder results in some people, but especially in people with diabetes, high blood pressure, lung disease, immune system disease, and pneumonia can lead to the extreme scenarios such as acute respiratory failure, kidney failure, and in some cases, it may result in death.
