How Coronavirus affects the body
How Coronavirus affects the body:
What is a virus:
A virus is a small parasite that cannot reproduce by itself. Once it infects a living s cell, however, a virus can direct the cell machinery to produce more viruses.
What is Coronavirus:
The name “coronavirus” comes from the crown-like projections on the surfaces of these viruses “Corona” in Latin means “halo” or “crown.”
Among humans, coronavirus infections most often occur during the winter months and early spring. People regularly become ill with a cold due to a coronavirus and may catch the same one about 4 months later.
This is because coronavirus antibodies do not last for a long time. Also, the antibodies for one strain of coronavirus may be ineffective against another one.
In 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) started monitoring the outbreak of a new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, which causes the respiratory illness now known as COVID-19. Authorities first identified the virus in Wuhan, China.
The coronavirus emerged in only December last year, but already the world is dealing with a pandemic of the virus and the disease it causes - Covid-19. For most, the disease is mild, but some people die. So how is the virus attacking the body, why are some people being killed?
Incubation period:
This is when the virus is establishing itself.
Viruses work by getting inside the cells of your body is made of. The coronavirus, officially called Sars-CoV-2, can invade your body when you breathe it in (after someone coughs nearby) or you touch a contaminated surface and then your face.
It first infects the cells lining your throat, airways and lungs and turns them into "coronavirus factories" that spew out huge numbers of new viruses that go on to infect yet more cells.
At this early stage, you will not be sick and some people may never develop symptoms. The incubation period, the time between infection and first symptoms appearing, varies widely, but is five days on average.
Mild disease:
Covid-19 is a mild infection for eight out of ten people who get it and the core symptoms are a fever and a cough.
Body aches, sore throat and a headache are all possible, but not guaranteed.
The fever, and generally feeling unpleasant, is a result of your immune system responding to the infection. It has recognised the virus as a hostile invader and signals to the rest of the body something is wrong by releasing chemicals called cytokines.
These rally the immune system, but also cause the body aches, pain and fever.
The coronavirus cough is initially a dry one (you're not bringing stuff up) and this is probably down to irritation of cells as they become infected by the virus.
Some people will eventually start coughing up sputum - a thick mucus containing dead lung cells killed by the virus.
The disease can cause more cold-like symptoms such as a runny nose too.
These symptoms are treated with bed rest, plenty of fluids and paracetamol. You won't need specialist hospital care.
This stage lasts about a week - at which point most recover because their immune system has fought off the virus.
However, some will develop a more serious form of Covid-19.
Severe disease:
If the disease progresses it will be due to the immune system overreacting to the virus. The chemical signals to the rest of the body cause inflammation, which is a defense mechanism in the body. The immune system recognizes damaged cells, irritants, and pathogens, and it begins the healing process. When something harmful or irritating affects a part of our body, there is a biological response to try to remove it. The signs and symptoms of inflammation can be uncomfortable but are a show that the body is trying to heal itself.
Too much inflammation can cause collateral damage throughout the body. Inflammation of the lungs is called pneumonia. If it was possible to travel through your mouth down the windpipe and through the tiny tubes in your lungs, you'd eventually end up in tiny little air sacs. This is where oxygen moves into the blood and carbon dioxide moves out, but in pneumonia the tiny sacs start to fill with water and can eventually cause shortness of breath and difficulty breathing. Some people will need a ventilator to help them breathe.
This stage is thought to affect around 14% of people.
Critical disease:
It is estimated around 6% of cases become critically ill. By this point the body is starting to fail and there is a real chance of death.
The problem is the immune system is now spiralling out of control and causing damage throughout the body.
It can lead to septic shock when the blood pressure drops to dangerously low levels and organs stop working properly or fail completely.
Patients who are severely ill with COVID-19 develop a condition called acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS. This leads to damage to the lungs, which causes fluid leakage from small blood vessels in the lungs. The fluid collects in the lungs’ air sacs, or alveoli. This makes it difficult for the lungs to transfer oxygen from the air to the blood.
Acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by widespread inflammation in the lungs stops the body getting enough oxygen it needs to survive. It can stop the kidneys from cleaning the blood and damage the lining of your intestines.
The virus sets up such a huge degree of inflammation that you succumb. it becomes multi-organ failure.
And if the immune system cannot get on top of the virus, then it will eventually spread to every corner of the body where it can cause even more damage.
Treatment by this stage will be highly invasive and can include extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation. This is essentially an artificial lung that takes blood out of the body through thick tubes, oxygenates it and pumps it back in. But eventually the damage can reach fatal levels at which organs can no longer keep the body alive.
Drugs used to tackle severe COVID-19:
Favilavir is the first approved coronavirus drug in China. In the USA, Chloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, is being tested for coronavirus treatment. TJM2 by made I-Mab Biopharma and AT-100 manufactured
by Airway Therapeutics are two other drugs in the evaluation stage for use against the disease.
What is a virus:
A virus is a small parasite that cannot reproduce by itself. Once it infects a living s cell, however, a virus can direct the cell machinery to produce more viruses.
What is Coronavirus:
The name “coronavirus” comes from the crown-like projections on the surfaces of these viruses “Corona” in Latin means “halo” or “crown.”
Among humans, coronavirus infections most often occur during the winter months and early spring. People regularly become ill with a cold due to a coronavirus and may catch the same one about 4 months later.
This is because coronavirus antibodies do not last for a long time. Also, the antibodies for one strain of coronavirus may be ineffective against another one.
In 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) started monitoring the outbreak of a new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, which causes the respiratory illness now known as COVID-19. Authorities first identified the virus in Wuhan, China.
The coronavirus emerged in only December last year, but already the world is dealing with a pandemic of the virus and the disease it causes - Covid-19. For most, the disease is mild, but some people die. So how is the virus attacking the body, why are some people being killed?
Incubation period:
This is when the virus is establishing itself.
Viruses work by getting inside the cells of your body is made of. The coronavirus, officially called Sars-CoV-2, can invade your body when you breathe it in (after someone coughs nearby) or you touch a contaminated surface and then your face.
It first infects the cells lining your throat, airways and lungs and turns them into "coronavirus factories" that spew out huge numbers of new viruses that go on to infect yet more cells.
At this early stage, you will not be sick and some people may never develop symptoms. The incubation period, the time between infection and first symptoms appearing, varies widely, but is five days on average.
Mild disease:
Covid-19 is a mild infection for eight out of ten people who get it and the core symptoms are a fever and a cough.
Body aches, sore throat and a headache are all possible, but not guaranteed.
The fever, and generally feeling unpleasant, is a result of your immune system responding to the infection. It has recognised the virus as a hostile invader and signals to the rest of the body something is wrong by releasing chemicals called cytokines.
These rally the immune system, but also cause the body aches, pain and fever.
The coronavirus cough is initially a dry one (you're not bringing stuff up) and this is probably down to irritation of cells as they become infected by the virus.
Some people will eventually start coughing up sputum - a thick mucus containing dead lung cells killed by the virus.
The disease can cause more cold-like symptoms such as a runny nose too.
These symptoms are treated with bed rest, plenty of fluids and paracetamol. You won't need specialist hospital care.
This stage lasts about a week - at which point most recover because their immune system has fought off the virus.
However, some will develop a more serious form of Covid-19.
Severe disease:
If the disease progresses it will be due to the immune system overreacting to the virus. The chemical signals to the rest of the body cause inflammation, which is a defense mechanism in the body. The immune system recognizes damaged cells, irritants, and pathogens, and it begins the healing process. When something harmful or irritating affects a part of our body, there is a biological response to try to remove it. The signs and symptoms of inflammation can be uncomfortable but are a show that the body is trying to heal itself.
Too much inflammation can cause collateral damage throughout the body. Inflammation of the lungs is called pneumonia. If it was possible to travel through your mouth down the windpipe and through the tiny tubes in your lungs, you'd eventually end up in tiny little air sacs. This is where oxygen moves into the blood and carbon dioxide moves out, but in pneumonia the tiny sacs start to fill with water and can eventually cause shortness of breath and difficulty breathing. Some people will need a ventilator to help them breathe.
This stage is thought to affect around 14% of people.
Critical disease:
It is estimated around 6% of cases become critically ill. By this point the body is starting to fail and there is a real chance of death.
The problem is the immune system is now spiralling out of control and causing damage throughout the body.
It can lead to septic shock when the blood pressure drops to dangerously low levels and organs stop working properly or fail completely.
Patients who are severely ill with COVID-19 develop a condition called acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS. This leads to damage to the lungs, which causes fluid leakage from small blood vessels in the lungs. The fluid collects in the lungs’ air sacs, or alveoli. This makes it difficult for the lungs to transfer oxygen from the air to the blood.
Acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by widespread inflammation in the lungs stops the body getting enough oxygen it needs to survive. It can stop the kidneys from cleaning the blood and damage the lining of your intestines.
The virus sets up such a huge degree of inflammation that you succumb. it becomes multi-organ failure.
And if the immune system cannot get on top of the virus, then it will eventually spread to every corner of the body where it can cause even more damage.
Treatment by this stage will be highly invasive and can include extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation. This is essentially an artificial lung that takes blood out of the body through thick tubes, oxygenates it and pumps it back in. But eventually the damage can reach fatal levels at which organs can no longer keep the body alive.
Drugs used to tackle severe COVID-19:
Favilavir is the first approved coronavirus drug in China. In the USA, Chloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, is being tested for coronavirus treatment. TJM2 by made I-Mab Biopharma and AT-100 manufactured
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