20 New Words (related to nCovid19) like spike, quarantine etc. with their meanings and
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Novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2
The novel coronavirus is a new strain of coronavirus, which has not been identified in humans ever before. The novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease is named as SARS-CoV-2. Coronaviruses belong to the family of viruses that usually cause illnesses like the common cold and respiratory infections. It is named after its ancestors—Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). Coronavirus is zoonotic, which means it can be transmitted from animals to humans.
COVID-19
The term COVID-19 was coined by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and it stands for ‘Coronavirus Disease 2019’. It is caused by a novel coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2 which surfaced in Wuhan in China during December 2019. The symptoms of this disease include fever, cough, breathing difficulties and loss of smell and taste. It is a respiratory illness and spreads primarily through contact with an infected person or surfaces and objects touched by an infected person
Virus
A virus is a genetic material that binds to a living cell and using that cell’s resources, creates multiple copies of itself. Over billions of years, viruses have mastered the art of survival by infecting every lifeform on Earth, including bacteria and single-celled organisms. The word ‘virus’ is derived from a Latin word for poisonous liquid.
Novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2
The novel coronavirus is a new strain of coronavirus, which has not been identified in humans ever before. The novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease is named as SARS-CoV-2. Coronaviruses belong to the family of viruses that usually cause illnesses like the common cold and respiratory infections. It is named after its ancestors—Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). Coronavirus is zoonotic, which means it can be transmitted from animals to humans.
Social distancing
Social distancing was the mantra on everyone's lips over the past two months following the health guidelines to maintain a safe distance between one another to limit the spread of novel coronavirus. Over the past week, however, health experts, including the WHO, have started to call the practice as ‘physical distancing’. It merely refers to keeping at least two metres of space between yourself and other people and avoiding crowded places and mass gatherings.
Epidemic and Pandemic
An epidemic occurs when one disease rapidly spreads, or increases in occurrence among many people at the same time—spreading from person to person in a locality where the disease is not permanently prevalent. Epidemics typically occur at the level of a region or a community.
Immunity
Herd immunity, also referred to as ‘community immunity’, is a phenomenon where a large part of an area or a community of people become immune to an infectious disease, which effectively stops the disease from spreading and protects the entire community. Herd immunity can be achieved in two scenarios: in the first one, many people contract the disease, and over time, build up a natural immune response to it; in the second, many people are vaccinated against the disease, thereby achieving immunity.
Quarantine
The term quarantine refers to restriction on the movement of people, who were exposed to any contagious disease or who have contracted an infectious virus. It is defined as a 40 days period of complete isolation. The practise started in the 14th century in Venice when ships coming from cities with plague epidemics were stopped at anchor for 40 days. Meanwhile, self-quarantine or isolation refers to separating oneself from contracting the disease by staying inside homes or not coming in contact with other people.
Community spread
Community spread is a stage of disease spread when the virus is contracted in person, but its source of infection is hard to trace. At this stage, individuals who don’t have a travel history to any infected ‘hotspots’, or who have had no known contact with an infected person, also start to test positive. Once community transmission begins, it becomes difficult to contain the disease and to stop the chain of transmission. The disease also pops-up in random individuals in a community.
Comorbidity
In the medical field, comorbidity refers to the presence of one or more diseases, along with another condition at the same time in an individual. The term was first coined in the 1970s by an American doctor. The conditions which can generally overlap with COVID-19 disease are diabetes, cardiovascular illness, other body infections, and mental disorders, to name a few. Patients with underlying medical conditions are said to be at the most risk of developing severe symptoms of COVID-19.