Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak

What is Coronavirus (COVID-19)?

Photo by cottonbro

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a new strain that was discovered in 2019 and has not been previously identified in humans. The coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).

Source: World Health Organization (WHO)

How the virus was transmitted?

The Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning that they are transmitted between animals and people. Through a detailed investigation, they found that SARS-CoV was transmitted from civet cats to humans and MERS-CoV from dromedary camels to humans. Several known coronaviruses are circulating in animals that have not yet infected humans.

Source: World Health Organization (WHO)

What are the symptoms of infections?

The common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. In more severe cases, infections can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and even death.

Source: World Health Organization (WHO)

How to prevent the infection?

Standard recommendations to prevent infection spread includes regular hand washing, covering mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, thoroughly cooking meat and eggs. Avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing.

Source: World Health Organization (WHO)

Photo by cottonbro

The outbreak was first identified in the city of Wuhan, Hubei, China in December 2019 and was recognized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020. As of 20 March, more than 246,000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in at least 180 countries and territories, resulting in more than 10,000 deaths and 88,000 recoveries. On 13 March, the WHO announced that Europe had become the new center of the pandemic.

Source: 

1. World Health Organization
2. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
3. http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/03/who-europe-now-worlds-covid-19-epicenter/
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%9320_coronavirus_pandemic#History