You shouldn’t be surprised to know that there are multiple types of coronavirus. While some of these viruses can give you just mild symptoms of common cold, fever and cough while some deadly coronavirus can lead to pandemic. Yes, we are not kidding, the outbreak of COVID-19 illness is caused by one of the many types of coronaviruses. But how exactly does a virus attack or infect your body? The novel coronavirus enters the body and latches on the healthy cells to deteriorate the overall immunity system of the body. Reports suggest that the novel coronavirus can lead to a weak immunity system for lifetime and make it almost impossible for many people to fight off the infection.
At present, novel coronavirus has reached approx 185 countries and medical experts across the globe are still wondering how this virus enters the body. Popular virologist Benjamin tenOever tried to take a deep dive into the nature of this virus and how it makes its way towards our bodies. At the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in East Harlem, the study was conducted in an isolated laboratory. The virologost claimed that in his 20 years of studying viruses, he has never seen any other virus hijacking the entire immunity cells’ genomes like novel coronavirus does.
SARS (early 20002) and influenza causing viruses interfere with less than one percent of the immunity cells and genes, SARS-CoV-2 virus blocks around 60 percent of the RNA. According to this passionate virologist, he has never seen such a gene-attacking pattern from any other virus and hence it is considered to be more dangerous than other viruses.
In any normal immunity response, an immunity cell sends out two signals, interferons and cytokines. Interferons are known for signalling neighbour cells to activate their defense response so that the copy of the virus can be slowed down. As this replication process is delayed, a second set of genes are activated. However in case of COVID-19 illness causing virus, one cellular defense is blocked while the other gets activated. This results in a continuous replication of novel coronavirus along with inflammation in the lungs. Virologist Benjamin tenOever calls this as a “unique” and ” aberrant” pattern of this infection.
If the replication of viral infection gets unchecked, there is no scope of proper oxygen exchange in the entire body. This is why it becomes crucial to keep the patient on ventilation support. The novel coronavirus enters your body through droplets in an infected person’s sneeze, cough or even breath. This can enter your body if you have touched an infected surface before touching your face, eyes or nose. The symptoms of this illness include fever, dry cough, dizziness, body ache, chills, sore throat, congestion or runny throat, loss of taste, loss of smell, diarrhea and kidney failure (in rare cases). If the viral replication isn’t stopped at an early phase, it can further affect your heart, lungs, kidney and brain.
