COVID-19 (CORONAVIRUS): how outbreak symptoms treatment vaccine detail info
You've probably heard many bits of data about corona virus. Some of it's true, but some of it is so misleading. So in this blog, we're gonna go through a summary sticking with the facts about what you need to know about Covid-19. Corona virus is a whole family of viruses that have little spikes on the surface that look like a crown, which is how it got its name. You've probably heard of other types of corona virus. There was the SARS corona virus and the outbreak was in 2002. There was the MERS corona virus, with an outbreak in 2012. And there are actually a lot of other types of corona virus, but they don't have special names and they just cause the common cold. The virus we're dealing with is called SARS-COV-2 and the disease that it causes is corona virus disease 2019. Or COVID-19 for short. Bats are actually a natural reservoir for many viruses, so the virus can actually replicate inside the bat without making it sick and then the bat passes it on to other animals and then finally that gets passed on to humans.
what happened in Wuhan, China After the first person was infected ? the virus got passed from person to person to person by people coughing and sneezing. Did you know that in just one cough it can spray 3000 droplets that can go all over the place. If you get smacked in the face by someone's cough, you can get a direct transmission of the virus. But if it lands in the air, the virus can land on a particle and stay floating there for up to 3 hours. If it goes on to a box, a cardboard box, it can last there for about 24 hours. And then if it goes on to plastic, it can be there for 2 to 3 days. So let's say you get in touch with the virus and then you rub your face and then you get infected.
What happens next When the corona virus enters the
body ?
it uses those proteins on its surface, the ones that look like a crown,
to get into our cells. Those proteins are like a key that unlocks receptors on
the outside of the cell. We believe that it's specifically the ACE 2-receptor
on our lungs that corona virus is using to get inside our cells. Once the virus
is inside, it then releases RNA, its genetic material, and it tricks your cells
into making copies of the virus. So your cells actually become like a factory
producing thousands of viruses without even realizing it. So at the beginning
when the virus is replicating, you don't actually have any symptoms yet. And
this is called the incubation period of corona virus. It's different for lots of different
viruses, but in the case of SARS-COV-2 we think that the incubation period is 4
days. 4 Days where you've been infected and you don't have symptoms of corona virus yet.
the virus was spreading, doctors in China
started seeing more and more pneumonia and one doctor especially , Dr. Lee wen
Liang, became concerned when he saw 7 viral illnesses that reminded him of the
SARS outbreak in 2002. He immediately started telling his colleagues that he
was concerned, but 4 days later the authorities told him to prevent spreading
false comments. But the number of cases continued to grow and on January 9th
China Central Television officially announced that there was a new corona
virus. At this point there were at least 50 people with pneumonia and the first
fatality, a 61-year old man passed away. To complicate things Wuhan was a major
hub for travel in China and it was less than 2 weeks away from Chinese New
Year's, when there's lots of travel and this huge celebration. By January 23rd
Wuhan was officially in quarantine. Nobody in or out of the city at all. But
unfortunately 20 people had already gave up the ghost from the virus. It seemed
like every day we were hearing about new cases of SARS-COV-2 in different
countries. It was sweeping the world and the World Health Organization labeled
this outbreak a pandemic of corona virus.
So what kind of symptoms are people actually
presenting with?
So we're lucky that we've got information coming out of China to know what to prepare for and what to expect. So the most common symptoms corona virus are fever, sore throat, cough, some shortness of breath. And we check out fever... people that are coming into the hospital, only about 43% of them had fever. When they were within the hospital about 88% of them developed a fever. So what that tells me is that if you don't have a fever, it doesn't guarantee that you don't have corona virus. Less common symptoms are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea in about 3-5% of people. So that's what you need to watch out for: Fever, cough, shortness of breath. And I know what you're gonna say: ''But that sounds like the flu, that sounds like a cold!'' And you're absolutely right and that's what makes this so tricky. So if you do get mild symptoms: Cough, fever, sore throat...
What you should do is actually stay at home,
don't panic and pick up the phone and call your health care provider, rather
than going and sitting in waiting rooms and public transportation and spreading
that virus everywhere.
if anything is getting worse due to corona virus.
So seeing if you're getting
really short of breath, if you're getting chest pain that's not going away or if
you find you're getting really high fevers, you're getting confused or even
having a blue-tinged lip. All of that would be signs that things are becoming
quite severe and you should be going to the emergency department. I just want
to say this one more time. For most of us if we get Covid-19 we're going to be
okay. Don't panic, most folks can recover reception . We never need to even see
a doctor or go to a hospital and you'll be just fine. We just have to watch out
for those severe symptoms. But unfortunately some patients do become critically
ill, so let's talk about that.
What's happening patients do become
critically ill from corona virus ?
What they develop is something called acute respiratory distress syndrome or ARDS. And this is a condition where the lungs develop so much inflammation and damage, that it becomes difficult to get oxygen out of the air through the lungs and into the red blood cells. There are actually lots of things that cause ARDS,things like sepsis or pneumonia, even pancreatitis. So in the ICU, we're actually really familiar with how to treat these patients. What you do is they often require incubation. So a tube down the throat, lots of oxygen. Sometimes you need to paralyze and sedate a patient, even flip them over onto their stomach so that you can expand the lungs without injuring them and get more oxygen into the back of the lungs. It's a really involved process as you can imagine and if that all doesn't work, then you can consider using extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation. ECMO, a bit of a mouthful. And it's like a machine that works like lungs outside the body. So the idea is blood gets pumped out of the body, the machine puts oxygen into it and then the blood comes back into the body. It's actually really similar to a heart-lung bypass that they use in cardiac surgery. 
who's at risk for catching
Covid-19?
Well, the answer is everyone. It doesn't matter what age you are, you
can catch corona virus. What we see is the people who are most severely
affected are the elderly and those who have underlying health conditions like
heart disease, lung disease, Immune suppression, diabetes. Those people go on to
get a worse version of the disease. So to put some real numbers on that, in
China about 78% of cases were people aged 30 to 69 and of those people about
20% of them had severe illness. So it's definitely not just the elderly that
are affected, but they are the ones who tend to have higher fatality rates. In
the US we've seen that 8 out of 10 people that have passed away are over the
age of 65 and in even higher proportion if you're over the age of 85. who is
going to become critically ill and need life support. So it's really important
that we all do our part to stop the spread of this virus. So I'm sure that
you've seen these diagrams all over social media right now. Everyone talking
about flattening the curve. So the idea is that we want to slow the spread of
the virus, but not everyone becomes sick at the same time. That way it doesn't
overwhelm the hospital system, it gives us more time to come up with treatment
and vaccinations.
What prection we take from corona virus ?
Number 1 is washing your hands
really well and frequently. So that means 20 seconds of washing your hands, a
long time by the way. It's about happy birthday sung twice. Make sure you get
your fingernails. Make sure you get between those fingers and the backs of your
hands.
Number 2 is social distancing. So there's been
a lot of talk about this. This is 6 feet between you and anyone else or 2
meters, but it doesn't mean isolating yourself. So make sure that you're
reaching out to friends, family. We have this wonderful technology. You are not
alone and don't let yourself get isolated. I know that it's a huge strain on
families. I know that there's a lot of financial demand and I just want to say
thank you because what everyone is sacrificing is at a community level really
helping in saving lives and it's inspirational to hear these stories.
Should you be wearing a mask once
you go outside?
The World Health Organisation says that if you are healthy and
you have no symptoms, you don't need to be wearing a mask. It's only people who
have symptoms: Cough, cold, fever. They should wear a mask or a healthcare
provider who's looking after someone who has Covid should have a mask on as
well. I do wear a pair of
thin gloves that I put on, so that if I'm touching door knobs, then it doesn't
get on my hands. And it reminds me not to touch my face as well, because I'm
pretty bad about that. And otherwise I just come home and scrub my hands really
well. So treatments. As of now there are no antivirals that have been proven to
treat Covid-19. There are lots of other trials going on around the world and
I'm really hopeful that we are going to come up with some great treatment
options in the future.
What about a corona virus vaccine?
Scientists are working
tirelessly to come up with a new vaccine. And progress has been fast, because
China early was ready to sequence the genes within the virus and that they
shared that with everyone internationally, in order that we will come up with a
vaccine quickly. From what I understand there's one in China and there's one in
the US that are gonna be starting testing. But even with this fast progress,
we're still looking at close to a year before they're gonna be able to
distribute it to everyone.
The most important thing at this point is each
of us playing our parts: Washing our hands, keeping social distancing to stop
the spread, slow it down and flatten corona virus curve. So we don't overwhelm the
healthcare system. I know this is such a difficult time. There's so much
uncertainty and things are changing so quickly. And yet every day I look around
and I see remarkable things. I see students who are bringing elderly people
groceries so that they don't need to leave the house. I have seen a local
distillery that has stopped making gin and instead is making hand sanitizer
that they're giving out for free. And I've seen countless health care workers
who are picking up extra shifts to relieve their co-workers who are getting
quarantined.
What happens next When the corona virus enters the body ?
it uses those proteins on its surface, the ones that look like a crown,
to get into our cells. Those proteins are like a key that unlocks receptors on
the outside of the cell. We believe that it's specifically the ACE 2-receptor
on our lungs that corona virus is using to get inside our cells. Once the virus
is inside, it then releases RNA, its genetic material, and it tricks your cells
into making copies of the virus. So your cells actually become like a factory
producing thousands of viruses without even realizing it. So at the beginning
when the virus is replicating, you don't actually have any symptoms yet. And
this is called the incubation period of corona virus. It's different for lots of different
viruses, but in the case of SARS-COV-2 we think that the incubation period is 4
days. 4 Days where you've been infected and you don't have symptoms of corona virus yet.
the virus was spreading, doctors in China started seeing more and more pneumonia and one doctor especially , Dr. Lee wen Liang, became concerned when he saw 7 viral illnesses that reminded him of the SARS outbreak in 2002. He immediately started telling his colleagues that he was concerned, but 4 days later the authorities told him to prevent spreading false comments. But the number of cases continued to grow and on January 9th China Central Television officially announced that there was a new corona virus. At this point there were at least 50 people with pneumonia and the first fatality, a 61-year old man passed away. To complicate things Wuhan was a major hub for travel in China and it was less than 2 weeks away from Chinese New Year's, when there's lots of travel and this huge celebration. By January 23rd Wuhan was officially in quarantine. Nobody in or out of the city at all. But unfortunately 20 people had already gave up the ghost from the virus. It seemed like every day we were hearing about new cases of SARS-COV-2 in different countries. It was sweeping the world and the World Health Organization labeled this outbreak a pandemic of corona virus.
So what kind of symptoms are people actually presenting with?
So we're lucky that we've got information coming out of China to know what to prepare for and what to expect. So the most common symptoms corona virus are fever, sore throat, cough, some shortness of breath. And we check out fever... people that are coming into the hospital, only about 43% of them had fever. When they were within the hospital about 88% of them developed a fever. So what that tells me is that if you don't have a fever, it doesn't guarantee that you don't have corona virus. Less common symptoms are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea in about 3-5% of people. So that's what you need to watch out for: Fever, cough, shortness of breath. And I know what you're gonna say: ''But that sounds like the flu, that sounds like a cold!'' And you're absolutely right and that's what makes this so tricky. So if you do get mild symptoms: Cough, fever, sore throat...
What you should do is actually stay at home,
don't panic and pick up the phone and call your health care provider, rather
than going and sitting in waiting rooms and public transportation and spreading
that virus everywhere.
if anything is getting worse due to corona virus.
So seeing if you're getting
really short of breath, if you're getting chest pain that's not going away or if
you find you're getting really high fevers, you're getting confused or even
having a blue-tinged lip. All of that would be signs that things are becoming
quite severe and you should be going to the emergency department. I just want
to say this one more time. For most of us if we get Covid-19 we're going to be
okay. Don't panic, most folks can recover reception . We never need to even see
a doctor or go to a hospital and you'll be just fine. We just have to watch out
for those severe symptoms. But unfortunately some patients do become critically
ill, so let's talk about that.
What's happening patients do become critically ill from corona virus ?
What they develop is something called acute respiratory distress syndrome or ARDS. And this is a condition where the lungs develop so much inflammation and damage, that it becomes difficult to get oxygen out of the air through the lungs and into the red blood cells. There are actually lots of things that cause ARDS,things like sepsis or pneumonia, even pancreatitis. So in the ICU, we're actually really familiar with how to treat these patients. What you do is they often require incubation. So a tube down the throat, lots of oxygen. Sometimes you need to paralyze and sedate a patient, even flip them over onto their stomach so that you can expand the lungs without injuring them and get more oxygen into the back of the lungs. It's a really involved process as you can imagine and if that all doesn't work, then you can consider using extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation. ECMO, a bit of a mouthful. And it's like a machine that works like lungs outside the body. So the idea is blood gets pumped out of the body, the machine puts oxygen into it and then the blood comes back into the body. It's actually really similar to a heart-lung bypass that they use in cardiac surgery.
who's at risk for catching Covid-19?
Well, the answer is everyone. It doesn't matter what age you are, you
can catch corona virus. What we see is the people who are most severely
affected are the elderly and those who have underlying health conditions like
heart disease, lung disease, Immune suppression, diabetes. Those people go on to
get a worse version of the disease. So to put some real numbers on that, in
China about 78% of cases were people aged 30 to 69 and of those people about
20% of them had severe illness. So it's definitely not just the elderly that
are affected, but they are the ones who tend to have higher fatality rates. In
the US we've seen that 8 out of 10 people that have passed away are over the
age of 65 and in even higher proportion if you're over the age of 85. who is
going to become critically ill and need life support. So it's really important
that we all do our part to stop the spread of this virus. So I'm sure that
you've seen these diagrams all over social media right now. Everyone talking
about flattening the curve. So the idea is that we want to slow the spread of
the virus, but not everyone becomes sick at the same time. That way it doesn't
overwhelm the hospital system, it gives us more time to come up with treatment
and vaccinations.
What prection we take from corona virus ?
Number 1 is washing your hands
really well and frequently. So that means 20 seconds of washing your hands, a
long time by the way. It's about happy birthday sung twice. Make sure you get
your fingernails. Make sure you get between those fingers and the backs of your
hands.
Number 2 is social distancing. So there's been
a lot of talk about this. This is 6 feet between you and anyone else or 2
meters, but it doesn't mean isolating yourself. So make sure that you're
reaching out to friends, family. We have this wonderful technology. You are not
alone and don't let yourself get isolated. I know that it's a huge strain on
families. I know that there's a lot of financial demand and I just want to say
thank you because what everyone is sacrificing is at a community level really
helping in saving lives and it's inspirational to hear these stories.
Should you be wearing a mask once you go outside?
The World Health Organisation says that if you are healthy and
you have no symptoms, you don't need to be wearing a mask. It's only people who
have symptoms: Cough, cold, fever. They should wear a mask or a healthcare
provider who's looking after someone who has Covid should have a mask on as
well. I do wear a pair of
thin gloves that I put on, so that if I'm touching door knobs, then it doesn't
get on my hands. And it reminds me not to touch my face as well, because I'm
pretty bad about that. And otherwise I just come home and scrub my hands really
well. So treatments. As of now there are no antivirals that have been proven to
treat Covid-19. There are lots of other trials going on around the world and
I'm really hopeful that we are going to come up with some great treatment
options in the future.
What about a corona virus vaccine?
Scientists are working tirelessly to come up with a new vaccine. And progress has been fast, because China early was ready to sequence the genes within the virus and that they shared that with everyone internationally, in order that we will come up with a vaccine quickly. From what I understand there's one in China and there's one in the US that are gonna be starting testing. But even with this fast progress, we're still looking at close to a year before they're gonna be able to distribute it to everyone.
The most important thing at this point is each
of us playing our parts: Washing our hands, keeping social distancing to stop
the spread, slow it down and flatten corona virus curve. So we don't overwhelm the
healthcare system. I know this is such a difficult time. There's so much
uncertainty and things are changing so quickly. And yet every day I look around
and I see remarkable things. I see students who are bringing elderly people
groceries so that they don't need to leave the house. I have seen a local
distillery that has stopped making gin and instead is making hand sanitizer
that they're giving out for free. And I've seen countless health care workers
who are picking up extra shifts to relieve their co-workers who are getting
quarantined.
''wash your hands stay home stay strange wish you good health''
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