4) **Severity of Illness**: The virus can cause a wide range of symptoms, from mild to severe respiratory illness, and it has led to severe health complications in many cases.
5) **Mortality Rate**: While the mortality rate varies by demographic, it has resulted in millions of deaths worldwide, highlighting its dangerous nature.
6) **Vaccine Availability**: Although vaccines have been developed, the emergence of variants has raised concerns about their effectiveness and the need for booster doses.
7) **Treatment Options**: Treatment options are limited compared to other viral infections, and not all patients respond effectively to available therapies.
8) **Mutation Rate**: SARS-CoV-2 has shown a capacity for mutation, leading to new variants that can evade immune responses and potentially increase transmissibility or severity.
9) **Impact on Healthcare Systems**: The pandemic has overwhelmed healthcare systems globally, leading to increased morbidity and mortality due to resource strain.
10) **Societal Impact**: The virus has caused widespread economic disruptions, social isolation, and mental health issues, affecting communities on multiple levels.
11) **Long-term Effects**: Many survivors experience long-term health complications, known as "long COVID," which can significantly impact their quality of life.
13) ... which has been quite a challenge. On a personal note, it was also a wonderful opportunity to embrace life. If you have Instagram, you can catch a glimpse of our exciting adventure through some photos on @emmanuel.0862
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10 MOST DANGEROUS VIRUSES ON EARTH
(🧵 mega-thread)
1. **SARS-CoV-2**: The virus responsible for COVID-19, notable for its high transmissibility, global impact, and potential for severe illness and long-term health effects.
2. **Ebola Virus**: Known for its high mortality rate and severe symptoms, transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids.
Why is Identifying "Non-Trivial SARS-CoV-2 Population Structure within Hosts" Important for Understanding SARS-COV-2 Evolution and the Emergence of New Variants?
2) The "non-trivial population structure" refers to the viral population within a host consisting of two or more distinct, independently evolving subpopulations, rather than a single, homogeneous population.
3) The key points about non-trivial population structure are:
▶️ It was relatively common, found in 5 out of the 9 chronic SARS-CoV-2 infection cases examined.
▶️ It was more prevalent in severely immunocompromised individuals compared to those not significantly immunocompromised
2) Viruses are not living things. They are tiny particles that can only make copies of themselves inside the cells of living things, like humans. When a virus makes copies of itself, it doesn't always make perfect copies.
3) Sometimes, little mistakes happen, and the new virus has a small change, or mutation, in its genes.
Most of the time, these mutations don't do anything useful for the virus. But every now and then, a mutation might happen that makes the virus better at infecting people.
2) This study looks at the risks of COVID-19 for people traveling to space.
Space travel is becoming more common, with over 600 people having gone to space. But COVID-19 could be a big problem for astronauts in the unique environment of space.
3) The study aims to understand how COVID-19 might behave differently in space compared to on Earth.
The researchers reviewed studies on other airborne diseases in space. They found that some diseases, like Epstein-Barr virus and Serratia bacteria ...
From Lung Damage to Gut Dysbiosis:
The Lasting Implications of SARS-CoV-2 Variant-Specific Microbiome Changes (From Wuhan strain to Omicron) labanimres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11…
2) The Wuhan strain of SARS-CoV-2 caused serious damage to the lungs of infected mice. The mice had a very high chance of dying from this strain. The researchers also looked at the bacteria in the lungs and guts of the infected mice.
3) The Wuhan strain increased harmful bacteria like E. coli in the lungs. This can make the lungs more prone to other infections.
The Omicron variant caused different changes in the gut bacteria of the mice. It increased certain bacteria linked to inflammation in the gut.
What are GAMMA CORONAVIRUSES ?
And why did we decide to talk about it?
2) A brief reminder :
▶️ SARS-CoV-2 belongs to the family Coronaviridae, is classified as a coronavirus and is responsible for COVID-19
▶️ Bird Flu refers to various strains of the influenza virus, particularly those in the Orthomyxoviridae family including H5N1 and H7N9.
3) ▶️ Gammacoronavirus belongs to the family Coronaviridae like SARS-COV-2.
Some notable gammacoronaviruses include:
- Infectious Bronchitis Virus (IBV): A major pathogen in poultry responsible for respiratory disease and reduced egg production.