Here's how Corona Virus originated, spread, and what methods are used to deal with Covid-19.
The Beginning
In late December 2019, a few cases of Pneumonia like disease were reported. The nature of the disease and the causative agent was not known at that time. This disease was not like any of the diseases known to medicine, so it raised caution to the local authorities.
It wasn't until 31st December when China reported these cases to the WHO. It wasn't known at that time whether it can be transmitted from one person to another.
Extensive studies and researches were conducted to find the causative agent of the disease. Early in January 2020, the cause of the disease was discovered. It was a novel/new virus that belonged to the Corona Virus group.
I like to add here that Corona Virus is actually a group of viruses and not a single virus. A few pandemics caused by other members of Corona Virus groups have also occurred in the recent past.
Who named this Pneumonia like disease Corona Virus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The virus which causes this disease was named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS CoV-2).
Early researches conducted in Wuhan found out that several of the early patients of COVID-19 had visited Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. It is a live animal and seafood market and many believe that the virus actually was transmitted from these animals to humans making it of zoonotic origin(Transmitted from animals to humans), although there isn't enough scientific evidence to confirm it.
The Spread
WHO declared public health emergency of international crises on 30 January. The Chinese media and International media warned everyone of the disease, but there was hardly any case of COVID-19 reported outside of China. The people and governments around the world didn't take the warning too seriously because of the said reason. China, though, was coping with the disease well.
Since the world didn't take the virus seriously, the usual international traffic continued even to/from China. In February 2020 there were reports of the COVID-19 cases outside China.
Sadly, even then no serious measures were taken by any country. By the end of February, a considerable number of cases of COVID-19 were reported outside China, though, not as many countries were affected as are today, but it was clear enough that if the virus wasn't somehow stopped it would spread rapidly across the globe.
Governments were reluctant to initiate lockdowns but awareness campaigns were started around the world. People were a little careful about the virus at that time. Many Individuals, as well as collective mistakes, led to the excessive spread of the virus.
Trump called the (said) virus "Chinese Virus" and ridiculed and condemned Chinese for the disease. The mayor of Florence (Italy) in February launched a "hug a Chinese" campaign against the racism started by trump. People in Italy took photos while they hugged a Chinese and posted it on Twitter. It should be noted, that this campaign was started before the first positive coronavirus case. This might be the cause of the rapid and excessive spread of coronavirus in Italy.
Governments and people around the world did not take COVID-19 seriously. Public gatherings, meetings, schools, tourism was going on as normal.
Until early February 2020 there were only about 30 COVID-19 positive cases and the numbers were stable. Then a 61-year-old woman "Patient 31" was tested positive. After that, the country saw a rapid spike in COVID-19 positive cases. More than 30 fold increase within a week. Upon a study, south Korean authorities found that the 61-year-old woman was alone responsible for all of these cases. She spent almost 10 days before her admission to hospital in public gatherings in religious places shopping mall and markets. She alone infected thousands of people.
By the mid-March, coronavirus had already spread to most of the countries around the world and had gained the status of a pandemic. WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic on 11 March 2020.
At this point, Most countries initiated Lockdowns and social distancing campaigns to prevent further spread of disease. Governments eventually took the right steps but they took them late.
Management
Even now, when the virus is so wide-spread, prevention of further spread is our best bet. We need to prevent the spread as much as we can because the more persons get infected the more stressed our health care system gets which already is working beyond its limits.
But what about the people who are already infected? How doctors are treating coronavirus/COVID-19 when there is no medicine/vaccine for it?
Here are the answers.
Convalescent plasma
Whenever an infectious agent like a virus or bacteria enters our body, our body starts making antibodies against it. You can say antibodies are our body's soldiers who fight against invaders (Bacteria/Virus). Every infectious disease is literally a fight between antibodies and bacteria/virus and whoever wins decides our fate (Us getting healthy or killed).
Convalescent plasma means plasma from a recovered patient. Plasma is part of our blood containing antibodies.
Doctors are using convalescent plasma from recovered patients who have developed antibodies against coronavirus to treat other patients. This is a very effective method.
There are certain limitations to this method. First, there are only limited patients who have completely recovered and a very large number of COVID-19 patients. Second, there is only a limited quantity of plasma that can be withdrawn from a person.
Symptomatic treatment
This is a method of treatment in which only the symptoms of the disease are treated and not the underlying cause.
For example; Cough, fever, difficulty in breathing are the symptoms of the COVID-19. Symptomatic therapy for COVID-19 would be to treat cough, to put the patient on a ventilator if the difficulty in breathing becomes too much, to treat fever, etc.
This therapy is effective too as it allows the body to fight infection (make antibodies) while the therapy takes care of the secondary symptoms that occur due to infection.
Vaccine
There is yet no vaccine for COVID-19 so it is not a treatment for it, but many institutions and organizations around the world are working on it. Let's hope they succeed in making it.
