Thread by @weatherindia

As the novel coronavirus disease #COVID19 continues to spread across the globe, the conversations around this pandemic have also gained pace. With billions of people talking about one issue, the information overflow can lead to ambiguity and uncertainty.

To help you through these confusing conversations, we have brought out an explainer of commonly used terms related to novel #coronavirus.

1. Virus

Over billions of years, viruses have mastered the art of survival by infecting every lifeform on Earth, including bacteria and single-celled organisms. The word ‘virus’ is derived from a Latin word for poisonous liquid.

2. Novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2

The term #COVID19 was coined by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and it stands for ‘Coronavirus Disease 2019’. It is caused by a novel coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2 which surfaced in Wuhan in China during December 2019.

The symptoms of this disease include fever, cough, breathing difficulties and loss of smell and taste. It is a respiratory illness and spreads primarily through contact with an infected person or surfaces and objects touched by an infected person.

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3. Physical distancing

Physical distancing is hailed to be the best tool to prevent the spread of #COVID19.

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4. Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Persons

Symptomatic persons are individuals that have gotten infected with the novel coronavirus and are displaying visible symptoms of the #COVID19 disease, such as fever, dry cough, etc.

#coronavirus #CoronavirusOutbreak #CoronavirusLockdown

On the other hand, asymptomatic persons are those that have gotten infected with the virus but are not showing any visible signs or symptoms of being infected. Nevertheless, asymptomatic individuals are still capable of transmitting the coronavirus onto other people.

However, as they expel less respiratory droplets than their symptomatic counterparts, their chances of infecting others are relatively lower.

5. Epidemic

An epidemic occurs when one disease rapidly spreads, or increases in occurrence among many people at the same time—spreading from person to person in a locality where the disease is not permanently prevalent.

6. Pandemic

A pandemic, meanwhile, is essentially a disease that is an epidemic but has spread over a large area, becoming prevalent throughout an entire country, continent, or the whole world. The @WHO describes the pandemic as “a worldwide spread of a new disease”.

7. Herd immunity

Herd immunity can be achieved in two scenarios: in the first one, many people contract the disease, and over time, build up a natural immune response to it; in the second, many people are vaccinated against the disease, thereby achieving immunity.

8. Quarantine

The practise started in the 14th century in Venice when ships coming from cities with plague epidemics were stopped at anchor for 40 days.

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9. Community spread

Community spread is a stage of disease spread when the virus is contracted in person, but its source of infection is hard to trace.

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10. Home-made face cover

#Fact | It is important to wash the mask regularly and not touch the mask during usage.

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11. Antimalarial drug Hydroxychloroquine

Hydroxychloroquine is a class of antimalarial drugs used for malaria patients for nearly seven decades. The drug is known to alleviate clinical symptoms associated with #COVID19.

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12. Mortality Rate

As per the latest update provided by WHO Director-General, COVID-19’s mortality rate, or death rate, is about 3.4%—meaning out of every 100 infected individuals, about 3.4 are likely to die due to the virus.

13. Incubation period

The incubation period is the time period between when an individual contracts a virus and till the symptoms of the disease starts to appear.

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The incubation period for #COVID19 ranges from 2-14 days after exposure to the virus. Whereas, the average incubation period for symptoms to appear is said to be around five days. Although, this period may vary from person to person and even in respect to the place.

#coronavirus