Corona – The Global Pandemic

Since the last couple of months, the planet earth has been going through an existential crisis. Starting from Wuhan, China. The outbreak of COVID19 or more commonly known as the coronavirus has affected around 170,819 people around the globe and reaching the death toll to around 6,514 people.

As of now, the outbreak has managed to reach 131 countries with the death toll being highest in China with Italy right behind it.

This virus was first and foremost discovered by a Chinese ophthalmologist Li Wenliang working at Wuhan Central Hospital. On 30 December 2019, he alerted his colleagues that there could be a possible outbreak of an illness resembling SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.)

The doctor was taken in by the police on account of spreading false rumors on the internet. When released, he came back to work and caught the virus from one of his patients and sadly he died on 7 February 2020.

The World Health Organization reacted on Li’s death saying “We all need to celebrate the work he did on #2019nCoV”. His death caused global outrage on social media as there was no official apology from Wuhan authorities for reprimanding him.

COVID-19 was declared as a pandemic by WHO. In the last century, there have been 4 pandemics. The worst was the 1918 influenza pandemic which resulted in the deaths of over 100 million people.

Novel coronavirus belongs to the family of SARS and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), both of which occurred between 2001 to 2015 killing around 1500 people.

The reason why this disease is so lethal is that the primary symptoms are not so severe and can be missed which results in the growth of the virus inside the body to the point where the patient can no longer survive and ultimately dies.

The novel coronavirus is a newly discovered virus that causes respiratory disease. This virus is also the cause of the common flu and cold. It spreads so rapidly because the transmission is through the air and by touch. It is a contagious viral infection that spreads only through inhalation or ingestion of even traces of droplets. A person who is a carrier, if coughs or sneezes on a surface or even touches a surface, it can easily be transmitted to all the people in the vicinity. In South Korea, the first person who was infected was not put in isolation. Hence, he was the carrier of the virus which infected more than 2000 people. Therefore, preventing transmission is paramount. According to statistics so far, elderly people are more at risk of dying from the infection as compared to people in their twenties to forties. Especially those with pre-existing medical conditions like cardiac diseases, diabetes, etc.. are at the highest risk. You can refer to the infographic below to learn more.

The structure of the coronavirus is quite complex. The core comprises of genetic coding that enables it to hijack cells and turn them into virus factories. This genetic material is covered by a protein called the viral envelope. On the surface, there are S and H E proteins. The large S glycoprotein is used by the virus to gain access to the human cell. They attach with an angiotensin-converting enzyme to receptors on the cell membrane allowing the virus entry. The exact mechanism has not yet been discovered. Based on a hypothesis, we can assume that the human cell ingests the virus in a process called endocytosis. Once it is inside the cytoplasm, the endosome opens to reveal the genetic material of the virus which is a single strand RNA. The virus hijacks the cell’s mechanism to replicate the RNA in N proteins and uses the endoplasmic reticulum to form its M protein outer layer and the most important S protein. Once the replication is completed, the virus is carried by the Golgi bodies out of the cell by a process called exocytosis. Upon leaving, it is enabled to infect the other cells. The stress of viral production on endoplasmic reticulum eventually leads to cell death.  

Given the fact that there is no cure or vaccine so far, we must practice a list of precautions for ourselves and others around us. Since this is an airborne virus, the precautions are no less different than that of the flu. Frequent washing of hands with antibacterial soap, covering sneezes and coughs so that the droplets do not spread, refrain from touching publicly exposed areas and if touched, wash hands immediately or use sanitizer, avoid close contact with people and most importantly do not panic. The entire world is suffering from this pandemic and we must help each other out so that we make it through. May this pandemic end soon and does not kill any more lives.

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