Explain Coronavirus. ( WHOLE PAGE TO COVERED USING YOUR ANSWER)
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Answer:
Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). A novel coronavirus (nCoV) is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans.
Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people. Detailed investigations found that SARS-CoV was transmitted from civet cats to humans and MERS-CoV from dromedary camels to humans. Several known coronaviruses are circulating in animals that have not yet infected humans.
Common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death.
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Coronavirus 2019-nCov novel coronavirus concept responsible for asian flu outbreak.
An artist's depiction of the 2019-nCov novel coronavirus. Coronaviruses get their name for the spikey projections on their surface that resemble the prongs of a crown.
(Image: © Shutterstock)
Coronaviruses make up a large family of viruses that can infect birds and mammals, including humans, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
These viruses have been responsible for several outbreaks around the world, including the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) pandemic of 2002-2003 and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreak in South Korea in 2015. Most recently, a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) triggered an outbreak in China in December 2019, sparking international concern.
While some coronaviruses have caused devastating epidemics, others cause mild to moderate respiratory infections, like the common cold.
Related: 27 devastating infectious diseases
Causes
All coronaviruses sport spiky projections on their outer surfaces that resemble the points of a crown, or "corona" in Latin, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Seven known coronaviruses can infect humans, including the novel coronavirus identified in 2019.
Beneath a coronavirus's pronged exterior lies a round core shrouded in proteins and a "greasy" membrane, Jan Carette, an associate professor of microbiology and immunology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, told Live Science in an email. The core contains genetic material that the virus can inject into vulnerable cells to infect them. So-called spike proteins extend from within the core to the viral surface and allow the virus to "recognize and latch onto" specific cells in the body, Carette said.
"When the spike engages its receptor [on a host cell], a cascade is triggered, resulting in the merger of the virus with the cell," he added. This merger allows the virus to release its genetic material and hijack the cell's internal machinery. "Once this happens, the virus sheds its coat and turns the cell into a factory that starts churning out new viruses."
Related: The 9 deadliest viruses on Earth
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a closeup on the face of a horseshoe bat
The novel coronavirus may have started in bats then jumped to another, still unknown creature before infecting humans. (Image credit: Shutterstock)
Several coronaviruses utilize animals as their primary hosts and have evolved to infect humans, too. Precursors to both SARS and MERS coronaviruses appear in bats. The SARS virus jumped from bats to civets (small, nocturnal mammals) on its way into people, while MERS infected camels before spreading to humans. Evidence suggests that the novel coronavirus also jumped from bats to humans after passing through an intermediate carrier, although scientists have not yet identified the infectious middleman creature.
The four most common human coronaviruses — named 229E, NL63, OC43 and HKU1 — did not jump from animals to humans but rather utilize humans as their natural hosts, according to the CDC. These human-borne coronaviruses "have presumably evolved to maximize spread amongst the population rather than pathogenicity," meaning the viruses may opt to maximize their spread rather than harm their human host, Carette said. This may explain why coronaviruses that are transmitted from animals seem to cause more-severe diseases in humans, but the idea remains speculative, he added.
Coronaviruses can be transmitted between humans through respiratory droplets that infected people expel when they breathe, cough or sneeze. A typical surgical mask cannot block out the viral particles contained in these droplets, but simple measures — such as washing your hands, disinfecting frequently touched surfaces and objects, and avoiding touching your face, eyes and mouth — can greatly lower your risk of infection.
The viruses generally cannot survive for more than a few hours on surfaces outside a human host, but people can pick up a coronavirus from a contaminated surface for a short window of time, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the Center for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during a CDC news conference in early 2020. Scientists don't yet got to know about it.
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