What is coronavirus?
According to the WHO, coronaviruses are a household of viruses that cause diseases ranging from the widespread cold to more extreme ailments corresponding to extreme acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the Center East respiratory syndrome (MERS).
These viruses were initially transmitted between animals and people. SARS, as an illustration, was transmitted from civet cats to people while MERS moved to people from a type of camel.
A number of known coronaviruses are circulating in animals that have not but infected humans.
The name coronavirus comes from the Latin word corona, meaning crown or halo. Under an electron microscope, the image of the virus looks like a solar corona.
The novel coronavirus, recognized by Chinese authorities on January 7 and since named COVID-19, is a new strain that had not been beforehand identified in humans. Little is known about it, though human-to-human transmission has been confirmed.
What are the symptoms?
According to the WHO, signs of an infection include fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.
In more severe cases, it could possibly lead to pneumonia, multiple organ failure and even death.
Present estimates of the incubation period – the period of time between an infection and the onset of signs – range from one to 14 days. Most infected people show signs within 5 to six days.
Nevertheless, contaminated patients can also be asymptomatic, which means they don’t display any signs regardless of having the virus of their systems.
Read more on what the coronavirus does to your body in the event you catch it here.
How deadly is it?
With more than 2,004 recorded deaths, the number of fatalities from this new coronavirus has surpassed the toll of the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak, which also originated in China.
SARS killed about 9 % of these it infected – practically 800 individuals worldwide and more than 300 in China alone. MERS, which didn’t spread as widely, was more deadly, killing one-third of these it infected.
While the new coronavirus is more widespread in China than SARS when it comes to case numbers, the mortality rate remains considerably lower at approximately 2 percent, in accordance with WHO.
What’s being done to cease it from spreading?
Scientists around the globe are racing to develop a vaccine however have warned that one is unlikely to be available for mass distribution earlier than 2021.
Meanwhile, Chinese authorities have effectively sealed off Wuhan and placed restrictions on journey to and from a number of other cities, affecting some 60 million people.
Many worldwide airlines have cancelled flights to China. Some countries have banned Chinese nationals from entering their territories and several more have evacuated their citizens from Wuhan.
Where did the virus originate?
Chinese health authorities are nonetheless attempting to determine the origin of the virus, which they are saying doubtless came from a seafood market in Wuhan the place wildlife was additionally traded illegally.
On February 7, Chinese researchers said the virus might have spread from an contaminated animal species to humans by way of illegally-trafficked pangolins, which are prized in Asia for food and medicine.
Is this a world emergency?
The outbreak now constitutes a global health emergency, the WHO said on January 30.
The decision to sound the highest-degree alarm was made after the first cases of human-to-human transmission outside China had been confirmed.
The international health alert is a call to nations around the world to coordinate their response under the guidance of the United Nations health agency.
There have been five world health emergencies since 2005 when the declaration was formalised: swine flu in 2009, polio in 2014, Ebola in 2014, Zika in 2016 and Ebola again in 2019.
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