What is Covid-19 ?
The new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is the new viral respiratory illness, first identified on January 13, 2020 in Wuhan province of China with high fever and shortness of breath. It is known that the disease is transmitted by droplet and contact. It is defined as a pandemic due to the global epidemic it creates.
The new coronavirus is a type of coronavirus family that can affect both animals and humans. Looking back, some different viruses from the coronavirus family cause severe respiratory diseases such as MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) and SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome).
Coronaviruses are named with the word corona, which means crown in Latin, since it is compared to a crown with a protruding and protruding crown, as viewed by electron microscopy.
Coronaviruses have been seen in our society for years. The simplest and most common of these are colds. A group of 20 different types of viruses that cause upper respiratory infection along with a runny nose are coronavirus.
Many other coronaviruses in the coronavirus family cause milder diseases with milder symptoms than the new coronavirus. Therefore, coronaviruses did not cause any panic when it comes to diseases such as the common cold.
From time to time, coronaviruses can change between humans and animals. The genetic information of viruses varies due to the mutation of their RNA. Especially by attaching to the cell in the surface proteins, making changes in the proteins used to enter it, it escapes from the previously formed immune system, and it can multiply faster and damage the cells much more.
The virus, previously called SARS, caused a disease very similar to the new coronavirus today. The name SARS is the name created using the initials of the English equivalent of severe acute respiratory syndrome. The second SARS virus analogy is used for the coronavirus, which is on the agenda today.
Apart from this, another virus from the coronavirus family came to the world agenda with the potential to cause serious illness and the outbreaks it caused. The disease caused by the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, a coronavirus species that passes from camels to humans, called MERS, has formed an epidemic in the Middle East region for a while.
However, since the effects of MERS in terms of disease are not seen all over the world, it is not called a pandemic. MERS is still seen as occasional cases at certain intervals in the Middle East region.
The coronavirus disease, the effects of which we are seeing now, is CoViD-19, which is globally accepted because it was first described in 2019.