In order to better
understand the COVID-19 and SARS-Cov-2 virus, the disease it leads to, from an
infectious disease viewpoint, some specialists recommend seeing coronaviruses
categorically as “new” and “old” as far as how long the viruses have been
infecting human beings.
A Cleveland Clinic pediatric
infectious disease expert, Frank Esper, MD, states that genetically they’re differentiated
into 4 groups: delta, gamma, beta, and alpha coronaviruses; only beta and alpha
coronaviruses have been discovered to infect human beings.
The older coronaviruses in humans were originally identified in the
1960s, yet have probably circulated in human beings for hundreds of years. Those
include HKU1 (beta coronavirus), OC43 (beta coronavirus), NL63 (alpha
coronavirus) and 229E (alpha coronavirus). Those older iterations mainly present with
mild respiratory infections, except for beta coronavirus HKU1, which also can
trigger gastrointestinal infection, according to Dr. Esper.
The doctor refers to newer
coronaviruses as “the true emerging infectious diseases.” Those include
SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV (MERS), and SARS-CoV (SARS). According to the doctor,
those are strains which have gone through recent animal-to-people transition.
It may occur when a virus mutates right to human beings, or via a second
species which then further mutates to a human pathogen.
He adds that it’s what we witnessed
with SARS in the years 2002 and 2003 and MERS in the year 2012 and probably
what just occurred with SARS-CoV-2.
Such viral mutations mainly occur
in animal species — and mostly remain in animals — however, when a rare
mutation permits transmission into people, our immune systems are actually
less-equipped to deal with the disease. It’s the case with those more massive
epidemics we’ve seen; even though, it is vital to bear in mind, just because a
mutation is showing human transmission, does not mean it is reproducing well.
In instances of SARS-CoV-2, SARS
and MERS, reproduction was successful enough to spread from animal-to-person
then from person-to-person, yet that does not mean there was enough evolution to
become a persistent pathogen to humans.
According to Dr. Esper, when
those virus mutations enable transmission to people, their survival becomes
dependent upon optimization of virus infection between people. A fast response
from the public health may mitigate the likelihood of that by restricting the
spread of infection in people and, thereby, decreasing the opportunity of more
efficient, new viruses from coming on the scene. In some instances,
unpredictable variables also might work to suppress the virus’ spread, such as
weather conditions or additional circulating pathogens.
Dr. Esper adds that they’re
still speculating why SARS vanished. One theory is that while SARS had the
ability to cause transmission from one person to another, the virus did not
have the ability to go from one season over to the next. It pretty much got its
single winter transmission season and mostly vanished and never returned.
In order to put the more
modern-day coronaviruses in perspective, the case/death rate for SARS was 9.6 percent; the virus infected 8,098 humans during the outbreak
of 2003 and 774 of those cases were deadly. The MERS 2012 outbreak, unlike
SARS, continuously infects multiple dozens of individuals every year. According
to The World Health Organization, since September of 2012, there’ve been 858
fatalities and 2,494 confirmed cases. a case-death rate of 34.4 percent.
The SARS-Cov-2 virulence
remains to be seen, though it has shown substantial adaptability to spread from
one person to another in areas of outbreak and also outpaced SARS in quantity
of documented fatalities and cases. According to Dr. Esper, the actual quantity
of infected individuals still will take time to confirm.
‘New’ Coronaviruses and
Globalization
In addition, the “new”
coronaviruses have taught humans a lot about infectious disease within an age
of globalization.
It has been almost two
decades since the outbreak of SARS occurred. According to Dr. Esper, that was a
time in infectious disease history which emphasized the implications of a
pandemic, for better and for worse, within an age of increased global
connectivity.
He adds that it was a
wake-up call. They witnessed the virus’s capability of circulating rapidly
across countries and within new global areas. On the flip side, they also witnessed
a significant collaborative response among regions and countries to stop and
prevent its spread.
WHO created a global
outbreak response and alert network right after the outbreak of SARS. They’ve
continued to strengthen those efforts in order to equip clinicians with
resources and tools that manage the care of patients and offer safety alerts
and real-time data to the general public.
However, it stands to reason
that they aren’t playing catch-up as much with this particular virus as they were
with the prior MERS and SARS pandemic influenza or coronaviruses, where by the
time they realized there was a fresh virus strain, it had already spread somewhere
else in the world.
What is next?
Currently, there isn’t any COVID-19
vaccine, even though efforts at developing one are underway. According to Dr.
Esper, developing a vaccine is just a part of the task. You must ensure that this
vaccine is effective, safe, and may be stably transported to humans who require
it, and not only in a single country yet around the world. Growing this virus
to create a viable candidate for a vaccine is a critical step; however, there
still are several others.
In the United States, a
clinical trial is evaluating using a broad-spectrum antiviral medication
referred to as remdesivir that treats COVID-19, yet thus far there isn’t any
data to validate the drug’s efficacy to treat this disease strain.
These swiftly evolving circumstances
means clinicians must stay vigilant and updated on public health guidelines, bearing
in mind that there’s still a lot more we’re going to learn about the virus.
Dr. Esper concludes by
noting that at this point, there isn’t any treatment. There isn’t any vaccine.
The best thing to do is provide everyone the data needed about how to protect
themselves, which also will help to mitigate further spread.
The New Journey Super Pac
Our group, The New
Journey Pac is one of America's leading Republican Conservative Afro-American
groups in the USA. Our goal is to get more Afro-Americans to vote for President
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regain The House to de-throne her Majesty Nancy Pelosi. Plus keep the Senate
and re-elect Donald
Trump.
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Through EDUCATION and
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what they can do about protecting themselves.
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