The symptoms of the Coronavirus, what is Covid-19, when you should go to the doctor, and many more questions were answered below.
What’s Coronavirus, and what’s Covid-19?
The illness that first started in Wuhan, China, is called Covid-19, and a member of the coronavirus family causes it. It is the first time the world is encountered with this virus, but like other coronaviruses, it came from animals.
What are the most typical symptoms of Covid-19 causes?
The symptoms that are caused by this virus are pneumonia-like symptoms. People that have been infected with the virus are suffering from fever, coughs, and breathing difficulties. There has been organ failure in severe cases. Because this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics can’t be used to treat it. The conventional drugs that are used for flu won’t work with Covid-19. The recovery process and time depend on the immune system of an individual and the strength of it. The people that have died in the past few months had a very bad immune system and were in poor health.
When should I go to the doctor?
If you are coughing, you shouldn’t go to the doctor. The advice from experts around the world is to stay home for at least 14 days if you develop a persistent cough or high temperature and to keep away from other people. It goes for everyone, both the people that have traveled abroad and those who didn’t.
For more information, you should visit the website of the WHO or your government.
For those that get worse symptoms, or the symptoms last for more than seven days, you should first call your health provider.
How is the virus transmitted?
The virus is transmitted human to human, and China’s national health commission confirmed that in January. Because of that, there is an ongoing pandemic in the world.
Is this virus more dangerous than the regular flu?
There is not much information about this virus, and the experts don’t know much about it. The regular, seasonal flu has a mortality rate below 1% typically, Sars had a death rate of more than 10%, and for Covid-19 the mortality rate is estimated to be over 3% for the elderly and those with poor health, and below 1% for the young ones.
There have been some speculations that Coronavirus is more contagious than the seasonal flu, and one of the main differences between the two of them is that there is no vaccine for the Coronavirus. That means that it’s more difficult for people to protect themselves, especially older adults and those with a weak immune system, respiratory or cardiovascular problems.
What should you do?
The most important thing that you need to do is to take care of your everyday hygiene. You should wash your hands regularly for at least 20 seconds. You should cover your mouth with your elbow if you cough or sneeze, or in a tissue, if you have one, but be sure that you throw it in the trash and wash your hands after it. You should stay at home if you feel sick, or if you were traveling to an infected area. You should remain in your house for 14 days, and seek medical help by phone if you have any of the symptoms.
Are there any other Coronaviruses?
It is not the first Coronavirus that people were encountered. Both SARS (Severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS (Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome) are caused by Coronaviruses that came from animals.
SARS spread to 37 countries in 2002, infecting more than 8,000 people and killing more than 750. MERS was different because it wasn’t that easy to be affected, but the mortality rate was significant, it killed 35% of around 2,500 people that were infected.
How many people have been infected with Covid-19?
More than 182,000 people have been infected as of March 15th, in more than 80 countries. Globally there have been more than 7,500 deaths, and just over 3,000 of them were in mainland China. But fortunately more than 79,000 people have recovered from Covid-19.
