On 31 December 2019, WHO was alerted to several cases of pneumonia in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China. The virus did not match any other known virus. This raised concern because when a virus is new, we do not know how it affects people.
One week later, on 7 January, Chinese
authorities confirmed that they had identified a new virus. The new virus is a coronavirus,
which is a family of viruses that include the common cold, and viruses such as SARS and MERS.
This new virus was temporarily named “2019-nCoV.”
WHO has been working with Chinese
authorities and global experts from the day we were informed, to learn more
about the virus, how it affects the people who are sick with it, how they can
be treated, and what countries can do to respond.
Because this is a coronavirus, which
usually causes respiratory illness, WHO has advice to people on how to protect themselves and those around them from
getting the disease.
What is Coronavirus?
Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses
that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases A novel
coronavirus (nCoV) is a new strain that has not been previously
identified in humans.
Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are
transmitted between animals and people. Detailed investigations found
that SARS-CoV was transmitted from civet cats to humans and MERS-CoV from
dromedary camels to humans. Several known coronaviruses are circulating in
animals that have not yet infected humans.
Common signs of infection include respiratory
symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. In more
severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome,
kidney failure and even death.
Standard recommendations to prevent infection
spread include regular hand washing, covering mouth and nose when coughing and
sneezing, thoroughly cooking meat and eggs. Avoid close contact with anyone
showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing.
What EU is doing for the patient?
Reference : World Health Organization
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