Corona Virus

 Covid-19

A coronavirus is a kind of common virus that causes an infection in your nose, sinuses, or upper throat. Most coronaviruses aren't dangerous. Ina early 2020, after a December 2019 outbreak in China, the World Health Organization identified SARS-CoV-2 as a new type of coronavirus. The outbreak quickly spread around the world. COVID-19 is a disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 that can trigger what doctors call a respiratory tract infection. It can affect your upper respiratory tract (sinuses, nose, and throat) or lower respiratory tract (windpipe and lungs).

It spreads the same way other coronaviruses do, mainly through person-to-person contact. Infections range from mild to deadly. SARS-CoV-2 is one of seven types of coronavirus, including the ones that cause severe diseases like Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and sudden acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The other coronaviruses cause most of the colds that affect us during the year but aren’t a serious threat for otherwise healthy people.

An early Chinese study of 103 COVID-19 cases found two strains, which they named L and S. The S type is older, but the L type was more common in early stages of the outbreak. They think one may cause more cases of the disease than the other, but they’re still working on what it all means. It is also normal for a virus to change, or mutate, as it infects people and this virus has done so. There are several variants which have been named for the regions they were first discovered but they have now spread to other areas and countries. 

The number of people infected changes daily. Organizations that collect this information, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), are gathering information and continuously learning more about this outbreak. As of this writing (04/1/2021), more than 129,000,000 people in the world have been infected. Over 2,800,000 people have died. Some 192 countries and territories on all continents (except Antarctica) have now reported cases of COVID-19. The U.S. has the highest number of cases, with more than 30,500,000 people infected and over 550,000 deaths. Brazil has more than 12,700,000 cases and 320,000 deaths; India has over 12,200,000 cases; France has over 4,700,000 cases; Russia and England have over 4,300,000 cases; Italy has more than 3,600,000, Turkey has over 3,300,000 cases, Spain has over 3,200,000 cases; Germany has more than 2,800,000 cases; Columbia has 2,400,000 cases; Poland and Argentina have over 2,300,000 and Mexico has over 2,200,000 cases. 

COVID-19 enters your body through your mouth, nose or eyes (directly from the airborne droplets or from transfer of the virus from your hands to your face). The virus travels to the back of your nasal passages and mucous membrane in the back of your throat. It attaches to cells there, begins to multiply and moves into lung tissue. From there, the virus can spread to other body tissues. Governments, health agencies, researchers and healthcare providers are all working together to develop policies and procedures to limit the spread of this virus both globally and from individual to individual.

One authoritative organization – The National Institutes of Health COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel – recommends the following treatments based on the severity of COVID-19.