COVID-19 What is it?

1. INTRODUCTION

Coronavirus and how it has changed the world in less than six months. November 2019 we hear that there is a virus that is rapidly wiping out people from China. Everybody watches on the television never once thinking that within 3 months the entire world will be in global lockdown. The coronavirus has turned the world upside down causing a global meltdown and soon to be an economic crash. The borders had to be shut, not allowing people in, those that have been let in having to quarantine. The lockdown saw food trucks line up not being able to deliver to supermarkets causing people to panic buy, leaving supermarket shelves bare in a very short space of time. The paper will look at where it started as well as measures to control the virus and its rapid spread.

The paper will look at key factors that helped to slow the spread, also look at scientific advice given by S.A.G.E furthermore how the government has used the advice needed.

The four nation-states of the United Kingdom have been in lockdown since 23rd March 2020. The lockdown has been enforced due to a virus which started in a small village in Wuhan China. The village which houses a live food market also known as a wet market. Wet Markets are a popular place for customers to go pick live animals, such as bats, cats, rats and dogs and many more wild animals. These animals are then slaughtered to order in unsanitized environments creating situations of cross-contamination. As a result, this environment has been the cause of other virus outbreaks in the past such as Asian flu killing 4 million people in 1956, SARS infected 8,098 people and killed 774 in the late 17th century. H7N9 infected 1,223 the number of people it killed was unknown. The new virus to emerge from Wuhan China has been named as COVID- 19. This has since turned in to a global pandemic. 

COVID- 19 comes from a family of viruses known as the coronaviruses. These viruses start by transferring from animals to humans causing humans to transfer to other humans. The paper will explain

1. Coronavirus

2.  R Nought 

3. Prevention measures

4. Infection control

5. Testing

6. measures of the nation on the lockdown and social distancing. 

The report will look at the usefulness of the data used from the pandemic and how it is collated and analysed to determine what places are more likely to spark a spike. At the last report, the virus had taken the lives of 307,000 people and had infected 4.4 million in the world of whom 33,998 were in the United Kingdom.

CONTENT

Terms …………………………………………………………………………………………

Coronavirus …………………………………………………………………………………

COVID origins ……………………………………………………………………………… 

What is COVID- 19? ……………………………………………………………………………..

R Nought …………………………………………………………………………………………..

Track & trace ………………………………………………………………………………………..

Testing programme ………………………………………………………………………………..

Heat mapping …………………………………………………………………………………

Prevention ……………………………………………………………………………………

Terms 

Words that will be useful to know and understand and that will be used throughout this paper.

1. Corona - Is a family of viruses that are contracted from airborne transmission making them respiratory transmitted diseases (Med, 2020)

2. SARS -  Severe acute respiratory syndrome. Corona related virus, had an outbreak in 2003 infecting 8000 people and killing 800 (line, 2020)

3. MERS - Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. Corona related virus had an outbreak-in 2012 infecting 850 people in over 20 countries killing 858 people out of 2494 (Paul Ricard & Marlowe Hood, 2020) 

4. COVID - Coronavirus diseases. An outbreak in 2019 infecting 4.4 million killed 307,000 worldwide making it one of the most aggressive coronaviruses to date causing a global pandemic (School, 2020).

5. WHO - The World Health Organisation is the international voice for health from the United Nations (International, 2020)

6. IDE - Infectious Disease Epidemiology. Is the study of the data to determine the transmission of a virus R rate.

7. ERN - Effective reproduction number is the study of data of transmission of a virus or disease as well as the impact of vaccinations (Farrington and Whitaker, 2020).

8. ROI - Rate of infection is the rate of which infection will spread from one infected person to another.

9. SAGE - Scientific Advisory Group For Emergency is the official government advisory group who advise them on COVID 19 

10. Airborne virus - Airborne viruses are contracted through the air.

11. Pathogens - Pathogens are germs also so? as microorganisms.

12. Infection control- Infection control is the prevention measures implemented to prevent or control the spread of a virus.

13. LSHTM - London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine researching the modelling of infectious diseases.

14. Modelling - Modelling is understanding the way a disease spreads and from that what prevention methods can be put in place to reduce the rapidity of the spread.

15. Pandemic - Pandemic is a disease that comes and goes after causing world widespread.

16. Epidemic - Epidemics are seasonal viruses.

2. Coronavirus 

There are in the region of 6000 viruses identified on earth, not all are harmful. A virus is submicroscopic which is a very small microscopic. Microscopics are smaller than bacteria. Viruses replicate when connected to a living cell, a living cell also known as an organism which is identified as such things as plants, humans, animals and microorganisms ( Pathergon)  two of which being bacteria and viruses. Microorganism bacteria can be found inside and outside. It is important to note that not all bacteria are bad and the body needs good bacteria to be able to function. Almost all viruses need a host cell to be able to reproduce. (Animal origins of human coronaviruses.web, 2020)

Coronavirus and its origins

Coronavirus comes from bats and is transmitted from animals to humans in the form of eating. In most Asian countries it is well known that Bats, as well as most other wild animals such as Rats, are a delicacy. Markets not only hold killed animals. They are commonly known for holding live animals that are killed to order in areas that are shared with already killed animals causing mass opportunities for cross-contamination of viruses from one animal to another. These markets are a breeding ground for new viruses to emerge. 

2.2 million people die each year from zoonotic diseases.

Animal viruses that transmit to humans are called Zoonotic diseases. Animals that are killed in places like livestock markets give the opportunity to transmit viruses from one animal to another. Humans then contract the viruses through consumption (Editor-in-Chief, 2020).

1. Monkeys - Ebola 

2. Rats          - Hantavirus 

3. Cattle        - Salmonella  

4. Bird flu    -  Influenza

Vulnerable groups more susceptible to contacting Zoonotic diseases

1.Pregnant women

2.Adults aged 65 or older

3.Children 5 years old or younger

4.Those with HIV

5.Those with cancer who are going through chemotherapy

6.Others with weakened immune systems (Line, 2020)

 It was recently reported in The Independent that a higher number of meats have been contaminated from the Chinese livestock, wet markets due to the crossing of wild stock and their viruses. (County, 2020) There are different ways to contract viruses, To name a few: insects, animal bits, blood or contact with other bodily fluids, sharing items with others that have been contaminated or airborne. 

The WHO reported on the 31st of January 2020 that the coronavirus had not yet proven to be airborne. However, we would argue that COVID-19 is a virus contracted by air transmission through the mouth and nasal. This being the case having to wear a face mask that covers the nasal and mouth area of the face helps prevent contact.   

Airborne viruses/ diseases are contracted by coming into contact with or being in an area where a person has coughed or squeezed who is infected. When a person who has an airborne virus coughs it reaches a distance of up to 8 metres in some cases. The cough extracts droplets that linger in the air for up to 30 minutes then slowly disperse to surfaces, given another person does not walk into the droplets causing the droplets to move and stay airborne. If the droplets move as someone walks into them this makes it a perfect opportunity to spread.

The virus has not been proven to be an airborne virus like its other family members and the WHO support this claim. However, Chris Whitty scientific S.A.G.E advisor to the government reported in a talk given at the Greaham College in 2019 that SARS, MERS Influenza are airborne respiratory viruses contracted through the nose. This would also support claims for the prevention measures from the government to wear a mask to stop the spread (Who, 2020). 

What is COVID -19

COVID -19 comes from a family of viruses called Corona. These viruses’ origins are found among bats and rats who are infected and come into contact with a human by either being consumed or bitten. It was reported by the government in February 2020 that it was an asymptomatic disease, which means people who contract it show no symptoms. However, since that report was made it has been proven from data collected by Public Health England and the NHS over the past few months that people who have reported to have contracted the virus show symptoms of 

1. Headaches

2. Sore throat

3. Coughing continuously

4. Shortness of breath

5. Fever of 104.0f

6. Chest pains

7. Rapid heartbeat

8. Chills

9. Breathing difficulties

These symptoms are consistent with other family members of the coronaviruses such as SARS and MERS.