Presentation coronaviruse

The world is mine and its problem is mine

What is CORONAVIRUS? Coronavirus is a type of virus. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the new coronavirus that emerged in China in December 2019.

• The word virus comes from a Latin word meaning venom and describes a tiny, tiny agent that causes infectious disease. Coronavirus is a family of viruses that got its name from its appearance. The word corona means crown. The scientists who in 1968 came up with the term coronavirus thought that, under a microscope, the virus they were looking at resembled a solar corona:

Though the disease currently spreading around the globe — COVID-19 — is often called coronavirus, it’s really a disease caused by one type of coronavirus: SARS-CoV-2. Coronaviruses are one of a variety of viruses that typically cause colds. But three members of this viral family have caused more severe outbreaks that include pneumonia (a type of inflammatory lung disease) and risk of death. The disease triggered by the new coronavirus is named COVID-19. That stands for coronavirus disease in 2019. The World Health Organization announced the new name on February 11.

Differences Between An Epidemic and A Pandemic

Endemic  refers to the constant presence and/or usual prevalence of a disease in a geographic population.

Epidemic  refers to a sudden increase in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected.

Pandemic  refers to an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large number of people .

Endemic Disease -- a disease condition that is normally found in a certain percentage of population -

  Plague of Athens: 430 B.C.

Around 430 B.C., not long after a war between Athens and Sparta began, an epidemic ravaged the people of Athens and lasted for five years. Some estimates put the death toll as high as 100,000 people. The Greek historian Thucydides (460-400 B.C.) wrote that "people in good health were all of a sudden attacked by violent heats in the head, and redness and inflammation in the eyes, the inward parts, such as the throat or tongue, becoming bloody and emitting an unnatural and fetid breath" (translation by Richard Crawley from the book "The History of the Peloponnesian War," London Dent, 1914). 

The Black Death: 1346-1353

The  Black Death  traveled from Asia to Europe, leaving devastation in its wake. Some estimates suggest that it wiped out over half of Europe's population. It was caused by a  strain  of the bacterium  Yersinia pestis  that is likely extinct today and was spread by fleas on infected rodents. The bodies of victims were buried in  mass graves . 

Spanish Flu: 1918-1920 

An estimated 500 million people from the South Seas to the North Pole fell victim to  Spanish Flu . One-fifth of those died, with some indigenous communities pushed to the brink of extinction. The flu's spread and lethality was enhanced by the cramped conditions of soldiers and poor wartime nutrition that many people were experiencing during World War I. 

When did the outbreak of coronovirus start ? The outbreak was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.

When did the outbreak start? Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization on December 31, 2019 of an unknown pneumonia-like disease.It had been seen in 44 patients. Initial reports tied this disease to a seafood market in Wuhan, a city in central China’s Hubei Province.But the earliest cases may not be related to exposure at the market. That’s what a team of Chinese researchers reported January 24 in The Lancet. The earliest known patient— the so-called “index case” — got sick December 1. He had not been exposed to the market, according to the study.

• There are various theories about where the very first case may have originated. The first known case may trace back to 1 December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei, China. Within a month, the number of coronavirus cases in Hubei gradually increased. According to official Chinese sources these were mostly linked to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, which also sold live animals, and one theory is that the virus came from one of these animals; or, in other words, has a zoonotic origin. During the early stages of the outbreak, the number of cases doubled approximately every seven and a half days.

• At the end of December, public health officials from China informed the World Health Organization that they had a problem: an unknown, new virus was causing pneumonia-like illness in the city of Wuhan. They  quickly determined  that it was a coronavirus and that it was rapidly spreading through and outside of Wuhan.

• Scientists say it is highly likely that the virus came from bats but first passed through an intermediary animal in the same way that another coronavirus – the 2002 Sars outbreak – moved from horseshoe bats to cat-like civets before infecting humans.

• But “we really don’t know” how accurate the origin story is, she says: “There’s some sort of connection [to the Wuhan market] and there were people exposed to the market that were infected.”
• Baker says what is “very likely” is that the virus originated in a bat. “It’s a likely scenario but we will never know. The market was cleaned up quite quickly. We can only speculate.”
• “ These wet markets have been identified as an issue because you do have species interacting,” she says. “It’s an opportunity to highlight the dangers of them and an opportunity to clamp down on them.”

Vocebulary on Coronavirus