What You Should Know About Coronavirus

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What you should know about coronavirus? Coronavirus and chronic illness got me curious and I decided to read about it. But before that let me thank all the front liners for all their hard work and sacrifices. Let's keep staying at home and stay safe in order for us to break this virus once and for all even though I am dying to go back to my hometown right now. It may seem impossible but I believe it is possible
Based on my recent readings and what I understand, people may be sick with the virus in between 1 - 14 days before fully developing the symptoms. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) common symptoms includes fever. tiredness and dry cough. Most people were able to recover from the disease without needing special treatment.


But

In more rare cases, the disease can be very serious and even fatal to a group of people. This is especially related to older people and others who have medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes, or heart disease. They may be more vulnerable and are prone to becoming severely ill. In other words it is also related to those with chronic illness

Since COVID-19 is a new type of disease that has been announced as Pandemic of 2020, there is a very limited study and information regarding the risk factor for severe diseases. It was said that older adults and people of any age who have serious medical conditions might be at a higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19

What does Coronavirus do to the body?
At first no one was aware and took it pretty lightly when the virus was first announced to the world. But soon as the outbreak of COVID-19 got super bad, all countries around the world started movement restriction in order to stop the virus from spreading

How does the Coronavirus attack your body?
The virus can infect the body cells. That means it can enter the healthy cells inside our body. Once inside, the virus will make copies of itself and multiplies throughout your body without you knowing until the symptom shows up

I'm sure some of you have heard that once you're infected with the coronavirus, you'll have trouble breathing and even experience dry cough. Here's why

The coronavirus latches its spiky surface protein to receptors on the healthy cells, especially the once inside your lungs. It'll burst into cells through the receptors. The receptors are called ACE2. Once inside, the virus hijacks healthy cells and takes over. Eventually, it'll also kill some of the healthy cells



How does Coronavirus move through your body?
So, how does it start

COVID-19 virus starts to spread with droplets from an infected person's cough, sneeze or breath. It could be in the air or on any surface that you've touched before touching any part on your face that gives the virus a passage to the mucous membranes in your throat that is your eyes, nose or mouth. Within 14 days, your immune system may respond with early symptoms like sore throat, fever or dry cough as it was told widely

The virus will then move down your respiratory tract (the airway that includes your mouth, nose and throat). The lower airways have more ACE2 receptors than the rest of the respiratory tract. So, that means that COVID-19 is more likely to go deeper than any viruses like the common cold making it more severe

As we know we breathe through the lungs. When you're intact with the virus and get infected your lungs might become inflamed, making it hard for you to breathe. This can lead to pneumonia. Pneumonia is an infection in the lungs through an alveoli (tiny air sacs inside the lung) where the blood exchanges oxygen and carbon dioxide when we breathe

This part here is when you go to the doctor for a CT scan of your chest, they will probably be able to see shadows or patchy areas that are also called "ground-glass opacity." Or in other words you can say it's hazy opacity

Most people who get infected with COVID-19 end up with symptoms such as cough and fever and most of the cases are mild. But on the other hand, infections can be more severe for some people. After the symptom begins to show for about 5 to 8 days, they'll have shortness of breath that is known as dyspnea. Acute respiratory distress symptoms (ARDS) may begin a few days later

When they get acute respiratory distress symptoms, they will need to use the ventilator machine to help them breathe

Why do they have trouble breathing?
The lungs are where the gaseous exchange takes place through blood. But as the fluid collects in your lung, they carry less oxygen to your blood. That would mean your blood may not be able to supply your organs with enough oxygen to survive. This can lead to a bad damage to your kidneys, lungs and liver causing them to shut down and stop working

That is why those with chronic illnesses have higher risk than healthy people. But that doesn't mean that we can take it lightly and ignore all precautionary steps

Yes, not everyone will have these serious complications even though they have COVID-19 as well as not needing medical care. Just in case, if your symptoms include trouble breathing, it is better to seek help immediately

What other organs are affected by COVID-19?
Many have shared their own experience prior to being infected with COVID-19. They share the signs and symptoms which occur within the 14 days before they're confirmed of being infected. It involves:
Nose and mouth - This might seem normal but they did experience the loss of smell or taste and are not aware of it as it was a normal symptom people may have when having a fever

Eyes - 1% to 3% of people with the new coronavirus have pinkeye

Stomach and intestines - It might as well cause a loss of appetite, nausea, diarrheas and indigestion. These might occur first even before the fever or any respiratory problems. At first I thought it was not true but judging from all the sources I read and based on most of the patients, they did have diarrhea and indigestion problems that were quite bad to begin with until the next symptoms showed up

Liver - For severe cases, early studies shows that COVID-19 might as well lead to liver problems or damage. You know where it all started


I am sorry if this is too long and if there's anything wrong with the info. Email me and let me know so that I can take further actions on it. Take note that the coronavirus cases are still very new that each info I found are quite similar and I haven't got the chance to read more of this. One of the sources are here. WebMD Medical Reference

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