What is Corona Virus?

About Corona virus:
Corona virus is the most talked about topic nowadays as people are concerned over the spread of corona virus. The corona virus got its name because it resembles the shape of a crown. The corona virus belongs to the SARS family (severe acute respiratory syndrome), which had also originated from China, around a few years back. Although, SARS and Corona virus belong to the same family of viruses, there are still some significant differences between the two. Some of these differences are as mentioned:

• Mortality rate for SARS was around 10%, however, for Corona virus, is less virulent with mortality rate is around 2.5 – 7.5%.
• Corona virus causes serious illness in 15- 20% of the patient.s Hence, around 1 in 5 people, infected from corona virus, have a chance of being admitted to ICUs and around 1 in 5 ICU patients have an increased probability of death.
• Corona virus is highly infectious as compared to the SARS virus as a single Covid-19 infected patient can transmit infection to three other people. Infection can also spread through asymptomatic patients, meaning that the patients, who do not have any symptoms but are infected by corona virus, can also spread the infection to other people.
• Corona virus is spreading very fast and is becoming difficult to contain.
  
• Symptoms and Treatments:

The symptoms of corona virus are somewhat similar to a common viral infection such as Fever (most commonly seen), cough, phlegm, sometimes blood while coughing, breathing difficulties, respiratory distress and diarrhea (in rare cases).
In case of minor illness, the patient can be cured by symptomatic treatments or by a regular viral fever treatment. However, the patients with serious symptoms are advised to get admitted to the hospital, where special supportive care can be provided to the patient. In case of emergencies, the patient can be put on oxygen or a ventilator.
Currently, no approved treatment options are available for corona virus, however, clinical trials are ongoing, across the world, for some drugs, which can be potential treatment options for corona virus.
 
Preventive Measures:
 
In the absence of targeted treatments, precautions and preventative measures are important in preventing corona virus spread. Some of the important precautions and hygiene factors, which need to be kept in mind by every individual, are as mentioned:

• Avoid touching your face, eyes and nose unnecessarily.
• Wash hands frequently
• Avoid going to crowded places
• Avoid non-essential international and domestic travels
• Avoid shaking hands and unnecessary hugging people instead greet them with ‘Namaskar’.
• Avoid going into high-risk areas
• Avoid coming in contact with any infected person
• People who are suffering from cold, cough or fever are advised to stay at home, avoid going out and wear masks all the time.

As per the W.H.O. recommendation, the healthy individuals should not wear masks. The reason, which makes the masks counter productive for individuals is that the masks when worn should form a proper seal and should be airtight but the people keep shifting the masks up and down on the face and touch the external surface of the mask to adjust it and then touch their eyes and face with those bare hands. This can lead to the spread of infection and can be highly dangerous in today’s time of COVID-19 spread.
 
Hence, these masks should be left for use only for the high-risk individuals suffering from diseases such as diabetes, cancer, immuno compromised hosts, those with heart, lung or any other chronic diseases.