by Alexandra Sarieva (8D)
The coronavirus is a virus that primarily infects animals but has recently been detected in people. The first human case appeared in October 2019 in the city of Wuhan in Hubei Province in China, with a population of 11 million. First, the previously unknown virus was temporarily named ‘2019 nCoV’. Its symptoms are commonplace and without a proper exam it can easily be confused with a common cold.
First it starts similarly to other diseases, with typical symptoms being a runny nose and a cough. But then the victims start to have a fever and eventually develop pneumonia. After several months, on Jan. 9, officials in Wuhan announced the new disease and named it novel (or new) coronavirus, or Covid-19, part of a family of viruses with the shape of a crown.
On Jan. 11, 2020, the first death was confirmed. Moreover, it was concluded that hundreds of other people were already diseased and that transmission from person to person was taking place. This confirmed that it could be easily spread through the air and saliva drops. In a few weeks the infection was detected in other countries, such as Japan, the United States and France, where the first death outside China occurred.
So far, according to a CDC study cited by CNN, it is considered less lethal — but more contagious — than SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), a coronavirus that swept southern China in 2002-2003. (Ed: At time of publication there have been more than 75,000 people diagnosed with the new virus and 2,100 deaths, with just eight reported outside China, according to multiple news sources.) Still it is a threat because of the difficulty in distinguishing it from a common cold or other disease.
This disease isn’t as deadly as some maintain but it is tricky because of its unrecognizable symptoms which make it hard to diagnose without proper exams. So we should be worried as travelers that because of the virus’s ‘invisibility’ it might not have been detected and we might want to stop going on planes and use greater than usual caution.
By Newspaper Staff
QUICK FACTS ON WUHAN
Where is Wuhan? Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province in Eastern China on the Yangtze River. It is 1,150 km south of Beijing, 12 hours by car.
Population of Wuhan? 11 million, the ninth largest in China.
History: It was the capital of China in 1927 and was the wartime capital in 1937 during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Economy: Wuhan is a transportation, manufacturing and science hub.
By Newspaper Staff
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