COVID-19: THE CROWNED DOOM

Dr. Binoy John MD DM (CARDIOLOGY) FCSI FACC FESC FSCAI FAPSIC Senior consultant interventional cardiologist & specialist in heart failure & advanced cardiac diseases, Chennai Visiting Consultant: Dr Rela Institute & Medical Centre, Chennai Credence Hospital, Trivandrum

- Dr. Binoy John

A virus is not even a living thing, but yet has managed to get a technologically and militarily advanced human-world in its entirety into a stupefying and unimagined lock-down, while every other animal moves gracefully free! It is enigmatic to realize that this virus which is just 0.06 -0.14 Microns in size and a mere structure of a single strand of nucleic acid, some lipids, proteins and carbohydrates and that which actually needs a host to propagate has humbled the scepter wielding powers of the world.

About the virus:

The Corona virus has spikes on it which gives it the appearance of a crown or corona, from which it derives its name. It is with these spikes that the virus gains entry into the host cells and multiplies and then causes all the ensuing destruction. It was initially named the novel coronavirus and subsequently as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus is presumed to have originated in bats and then moved to probably the pangolin before it infected the humans for the first time in Wuhan, Hubei province in China. The Corona Virus disease 2019 or the COVID-19, is now a global pandemic affecting over 3.7 million people and counting, in 210 countries and territories of the world.

How does the virus spread?