Prasangsa Budha - 237033
UNIT14-PHYSIOLOGICAL DISORDERS
Coronavirus
(covid-19)
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UNIT14-PHYSIOLOGICAL DISORDERS
P1 - Explain the nature of two named physiological disorders
What is coronavirus? According to World Health Organisation, the coronaviruses are a
large family consisting of viruses that can cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to
the more severe diseases such as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome which is called
MERS-CoV and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome which is called SARS-CoV-2.
Covid-19 is a pandemic that is caused by a virus called severe acute respiratory syndrome
coronavirus 2 also known as SARS-cov-2 and this virus is genetically similar to the SARS
coronavirus that had an outbreak back in 2002.
How did the coronavirus outbreak happen? What started as an epidemic mainly limited to
China has now become a global pandemic affecting all countries in the world. Furthermore,
this coronavirus pandemic is believed to have originated at a “wet market” in the city of
Wuhan, China, in late 2019 and a wet market is a type of marketplace that commonly sells
fresh meat, fish, produce, and other perishable goods which is different from "dry markets"
that sell durable goods such as fabric and electronics.
In china there is a saying where “anything that flies except a plane, and anything with four
legs except a table.” can be eaten as well as another saying “Anything that walks, swims,
crawls, or flies with its back to heaven is edible.” The infamous wet markets in China sell a
wide range of exotic animal species like porcupines, raccoons and otters and many other
animals that may seem to be weird and seem inedible for our western eyes as it is not within
our culture to eat exotic like animals. Going into a wet market is almost like you're going to a
zoo where there are both dead and live animals on display and sometimes you could see
them getting killed in front of you.
These type of wet markets were reported to have been the very birthplace for SARS
developing and now there is a strong possibility that the wet markets are now the origin of
COVID-19, which had mainly started supposedly with there being a consumption of pangolin
or bats that were kept along with other wildlife in very cramped and unsanitary conditions in
the wet markets of Wuhan. It has not yet been confirmed if covid-19 had originated in the
wet markets of wuhan or if its main host had been bats as bats were not sold in the markets
but it is suggested that the bats may have infected the live chickens or other animals sold at
the market. Subsequently, the markets like in wuhan would heighten the risks of viruses
jumping from animals to humans because the hygiene standards would be more difficult to
maintain if live animals were to be kept and butchered on site and the wet markets are also
densely packed which this then allows disease to spread from species to species.
- https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/09/what-coronavirus-is-covid-19/
How does coronavirus differentiate from the flu and the common flu? The common
cold is mainly caused by a different strain of virus to the Covid-19 where most coronaviruses,
such as the common cold would cause mild infection in our upper respiratory tract and
produce minor symptoms such as there being a stuffy nose, headache and sore throat.
People who were to contract Covid-19 would suffer from respiratory problems that would
cause them to have a cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing and fever where this
infection can also cause someone to have pneumonia, kidney failure and in most serious
cases, death. Whereas, the flu is caused by a number of different influenza viruses. The flu
, Prasangsa Budha - 237033
UNIT14-PHYSIOLOGICAL DISORDERS
is quite infectious and can easily be spread to other people, where it is most likely to be
passed on to another person within the first five days of infection. However, the flu
symptoms can be slightly more serious than those who are with the common cold as with the
flu some people experience having a loss of appetite, diarrhoea or stomach pain, where they
have a sense of feeling sick and being sick and in most serious cases, the flu can also cause
pneumonia.
Coronavirus is NOT “just like the flu” but it is worse as although most of the symptoms of
covid-19 is similar to the flu it is common to think that they are similar. But covid 19 is very
different from the flu as the flu has an R0 of 1.3 and covid-19 has an R0 of 2-2.5.
R0 which is pronounced “R naught.” Is a term that would indicate how contagious and
infectious disease is and it is also referred to as the reproduction number and this would be
because as an infection spreads to new people, it would reproduce itself. Furthermore, the
R0 term would show the average number of people who would catch a disease from one
contagious person.
For example, if a virus were to have an R0 of 4, this would mean that every person infected
would go on to infect 4 other people if there were to be no containment measures
introduced.
The estimates of the R0 for Covid-19
continue to vary and the reason for this
would be because we still do not know
how many people have been infected in
total. Also it is important to understand that
the R0 is a measure of how infectious a
disease is, but not how deadly it is.
If the flu has a R0 of 1.3 then this would
mean that an individual with the flu would
go on to infect at least one or two other
people and after this goes on for at least
10 times that would equal to 56 people
being infected. In comparison, the
covid-19’s R0 is at 2-2.5 is one person
were to have it then they could go into infect 2 people then those two people would go on to
affect another two people each and after this goes on for 10 times then the total number of
people infected could equal to more than 2047 people being infected.
The effects of covid-19 with an R0 of 2-2.5 The effects of seasonal flu with R0 of 1.3
