During times of uncertainty our minds are filled with millions of unanswered question, out of which I have made a deliberate attempt to answer 26 of them. This blog is divided into two parts, one The Basics and the other Novel Coronavirus.
The Basics:
1. What is a virus?
A virus is a very tiny particle of RNA or DNA genetic code wrapped by an outer protein covering. They are smaller than the tiniest bacteria and cannot even be seen by an electron microscope.
2.How small are viruses?
Extremely tiny. 100 million viral particles of the novel coronavirus, can fit on a pinhead. That’s how incredibly small they are.
3. Are viruses living or dead?
WELL, that's a question which even virologists find difficult to answer. Viruses are one of the most puzzling beings because they seem to be dead when outside a living body but as soon as they come in contact with a living cell they suddenly become living. They are mostly compared to the dormancy of seeds but we have to consider the fact that the virus has no system to live outside a host cell, unlike a dormant seed.
4. Where can one find a virus?
Everywhere. It’s amazing to realize that if you add them all up, all the viruses in the world weigh more than all the living matter in the world – including all of the plants, animals and bacteria. In fact a human genome is derived from 10% of virus DNA.
5. What do virus particles do?
Virus particles try to insert themselves into living cells in order to multiply and reproduce, while doing so they harm the host by confusing and controlling its cell. This is possible only when the virus is able to instruct the cell with proper instruction, failure on doing so will result in mass destruction. Viruses use the cell for reproducing after which they instruct the cell to self destruct.
6. Why do viruses try to get into living cells?
To Reproduce. Viruses act like parasites, they just use the cell to make its copies but they do not extract food or other substances from the living cell. They hijack living cells in order to force each cell to make more viruses. When a cell is hijacked, the virus sends out hundreds or thousands of copies of itself. It often kills the hijacked cell as a result.
7. Why is it so hard to stop a virus from spreading?
It is hard to stop a virus from spreading because of their size and their protein cover that wraps around them is not penintratable.
8. Is it easy for a virus to get into a living cell?
Depends. This depends in the first place whether the cell has the right receptor for the particular virus, just as a key needs a specific keyhole to work. Most viruses are blocked by our immune system or because we don’t have the right receptors for the virus to enter the cell. Thus, 99% of them are harmless to humans. Its the 1% that create havoc.
9. How many kinds of viruses exist, and how many of them are harmful to humans?
Of the millions of types of viruses, only a few hundred are known to harm humans. New viruses emerge all the time. Most are harmless.
10. How does a virus spread?
Fairly Easily. A virus spreads fairly easily from person to person, through coughs and touch, Recent reports indicate that it may also spread via fecal and urine contamination, but that requires confirmation.
Novel Coronavirus:
11. Why is it called the “novel” coronavirus?
Novel = New, Not seen before. Novel just means it is new to humans, meaning that this specific virus is one that we’ve never seen before. Our immune system has been evolving for 2 million years. But since our bodies have never seen this virus before, there has been no opportunity for humans to develop immunity. That lack of immunity, combined with the virus’s ability to spread easily and its relative lethality, is why the arrival of SARS-CoV2 is so disturbing.
12. How often does a novel virus emerge that we need to care about?
It’s rare… but it happens. Examples include the viruses that cause diseases such as HIV, SARS, MERS and a few others. It will happen again. The emergence of a novel virus is a very big problem … if it can easily spread among people and if it is harmful.
13. How easily does the new virus spread?
SARS-CoV2 spreads fairly easily from person to person, through coughs and touch. It is a “respiratory transmitted” virus.
14. How many different coronaviruses affect humans?
All of the 7 Coronaviruses. 4 generate a mild cold. But 3 of them can be deadly, including the viruses that cause SARS and MERS, and now the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV2.
15. How is this new virus different from the earlier known coronaviruses that spread SARS or MERS?
SARS-CoV2 is different in 4 critical ways:
First, many infected people have no symptoms for days, so they can unknowingly infect others, and we don’t know who to isolate. This is very worrisome because SARS-CoV2 is highly infectious.
Second, 80% of the time, COVID-19 is a mild disease that feels like a minor cold or cough, so we don’t isolate ourselves, and infect others.
Third, the symptoms are easily confused with the flu, so many people think they have the flu and don’t consider other possibilities.
Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, the virus is very easy to spread from human to human because in the early stages it is concentrated in the upper throat. The throat is full of viral particles so when we cough or sneeze, billions of these particles can be expelled and transmitted to another person.
16. What does SARS-CoV2 look like?
It looks lie a small ball containing thin long threads of gene, covered by a protein shell. The shell has spikes that stick out and make it look like the corona from the sun. This family of viruses all have a similar appearance; they all look like a corona.
17. What is the difference between SARS-CoV2 and COVID-19?
SARS-CoV2 is the virus; COVID-19 is the disease which that virus spreads.
18. On average, how many particles of the virus does it take to infect you?
Usually takes very little. We really don’t know yet for SARS-CoV2.
19. Someone is infected with the new virus and never shows any symptoms at all. Why?
Many infected people do not show any symptoms for the first few days and then a mild cough or low fever shows up. This is the opposite of SARS, where you had clear symptoms for a few days but were only contagious when sick.
20. If you have no symptoms, can you still infect other people?
Yes, that's what makes it much more difficult to slow the spread.
21. Why will it take so long to develop a vaccine if this is an emergency?
It’s not necessarily vaccine discovery that takes so long, but vaccine testing. Once a “candidate” vaccine exists in the lab, a series of clinical trials are needed, first on animals and then on successively larger groups of people.
22. Have we made progress already?
The good news is that only weeks after the discovery and isolation of SARS-CoV2, which occurred in early January of 2020, vaccine development started immediately. Funding has been allocated by many governments and many companies and scientists around the world are working on it with great urgency.
23. Can’t we develop a vaccine faster?
No, because the human body’s immune system is complex and unpredictable. Viral mutations may occur. Children are different from adults. Women may respond differently than men. We need to be sure that any vaccine is 100% safe for everyone who gets it. To accomplish that, we need to test drugs and vaccines at various doses on a wide range of healthy human volunteers under carefully measured conditions.
24. How deadly is the new virus?
The WHO currently reports a higher figure of more than 3%, but that estimate is likely to come down as they figure out how to count many unreported or mild cases. Mortality is clearly higher in older people and those with underlying conditions.
25. Which groups of people are most at danger here?
Older or Diseased People. The older you are, the higher your risk. Also at greater risk are people with underlying diseases such as diabetes, chronic obstructive lung disease and pulmonary disease or cardiovascular disease or immune deficiencies.
THE ONLY WAY OUT SEEMS TO BE SOCIAL DISTANCING AND SELF ISOLATION. LET'S STOP THE SPREAD AND HELP THE HEALTH WORKERS..
Stay Safe, Stay Alert and Stay At Home.
Comments