What is CoronaVirus, Symptoms and How it Spreads

What is Corona Virus and Covid-19

There are two terms which are being used very commonly these days with regards to this disease, Corona Virus and Covid-19. So let’s first understand the basic difference between two and why the same disease is called by two names.

Corona virus is bigger term or a large family of virus which is related to respiratory related problems in humans and animals. This has a very wide range from basic cold/cough to severe respiratory issues like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

Covid-19 is kind of sub-category of corona virus. COVID-19 has been identified as SARS-COV-2 (SARS Corona Virus type-2); affecting humans only till now. This virus has been detected in Dec-2019, hence the name COVID-19 (COronoVIrusDisease-2019). It all started from China and then outbreak like anything to the other countries of the world. In March-2020, just in 4 months’ time, WHO declared this as Pandemic. 

Symptoms

Symptoms of Coronavirus are not seeing immediately, it normally takes 2 to 14 days to have symptoms. Most commons are:

• ·       Fever
• ·       Dry Cough
• ·       Tiredness
  
  
  
  
  
   Other less common symptoms includes:

• ·       Sore Throat
• ·       Headache
• ·       Difficulty in breathing
• ·       Chest pain
• ·       Nasal Congestion
• ·       Diarrhea
• ·       Loss of Taste/Smell
• ·       Rashes on Skin

All these symptoms normally start with mild and then become strong with time.  Symptoms may vary from person to person.

People who are older and have medical history like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, lung disease, kidney, liver diseases, Cancer are more prone to this virus. Basically people with low immunity are more probable to be infected with this virus easily as in compared to other healthy fit persons. Having said this, anyone can catch COVID-19 and become seriously ill. It is highly advised that anyone who is having mix of any of the above symptoms should get a medical treatment urgently.

How Corona Virus Spread

Covid-19 mainly spreads from person to person via small droplets from mouth or nose produced as a result of coughing/sneezing of the person infected from Covid-19.

Covid-19 can spread in two ways:

• One is via the direct contact i.e. person can get infected if he gets in close contact with the infected person and infected person cough/sneeze without covering his face. Hence it is highly advised to stay atleast 1 meter away from each other.This virus can’t spread from animals to humans as per studies but it is still recommended to use all hygiene practices while handling pets like washing hands after playing with them, avoiding licking, kissing etc
• Second is the indirect contact. When infected people cough/sneeze without covering his mouth, he expels droplets. These droplets are heavy and can’t travel far and quickly sink to the surface like table, handrails, doorknobs etc. Now people can touch the surface on which droplets have stuck and then touching the hands to eyes, nose or mouth and can get infected.  Hence it is highly advised to wash hands at regular interval so that virus can be killed before entering the body. Now the major question is how long this virus can survive on different surfaces. As per the studies, this can stay upto 4 hour on copper, upto 24 hour on cardboard and upto 72 hours on plastic and steel. This virus can be easily killed by cleaning these surfaces using normal household disinfectants. In case you have touched any surface, clean your hands at regular intervals with normal soap at home or use sanitizers.