CORONA: A GLOBAL OUTBREAK.

Byline: IMTIAZ RAFI BUTT

O n 29th of January, 2020, the Government of China has officially reported that it is facing a chaotic epidemic of a viral infection named coronavirus which has already infected over 7000 people and the number is rising. 170 deaths have already been reported and number is sure to rise. The WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom has made multiple emergency meetings and held press conferences urging the world to come together to avoid a global catastrophe.

The spread of the virus from Wuhan city of China to the rest of the globe and its potential for disaster marks an imminent threat to humanity as a whole and sheds light on the direction the world governments are headed with their policies in the field of health and medicine. The coming days will test the efficiency and resilience of not just China to contain this disease but how the whole of humanity can join hands to fight against suffering and death. The term coronavirus comes from the latin word Corona, meaning crown.

This virus gets this name from the crown like appearance it shows when viewed under an electron microscope. Without going into the biological origins and complex details of viruses and what is distinguishable about coronavirus, it can be summarized in a way that coronavirus belongs to a group of viruses that mainly infects animals but due to close contact with humans, it can mutate its genetic structure to infect human beings. Viruses are different from bacteria and are considered to be on the borderline of living and non-living organisms. Viruses can destroy living cells of animals and plants alike, including humans.

The chemical name of the current coronavirus is (nCoV-2019), as the earliest case appeared in Wuhan city and Jubie province of Mainland China. Since, December 2019, 7000 plus persons have been positively diagnosed and are fighting to recover from its adverse effects.

The origins of coronavirus have been identified though absolute verifications are awaited from WHO and other expert technical organizations in the field of medical research, the first patient from Wuhan China, who was diagnosed as the first victim of coronavirus was a shop owner of a fish market. On further study of the patient, it has come to light the Wuhan Fish Market is known for its delicacy of handling snake meat.

The present coronavirus in its original forms is designed to infect and kill bats, as many snakes feed on bats, the virus must have infected the snake meat...

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