Coronaviruses are types of viruses that typically affect the respiratory tracts of birds and mammals, including humans. Doctors associate them with the common cold, bronchitis, pneumonia, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and they can also affect the gut. These viruses are typically responsible for common colds more than serious diseases. However, coronav iruses are also behind some more severe outbreaks.
Over the last 70 years, scientists have found that coronaviruses can infect mice, rats, dogs, cats, turkeys, horses, pigs, and cattle. Sometimes, these animals can transmit coronaviruses to humans.
What is a coronavirus? Covering the mouth when sneezing may help stop the spread of coronaviruses. Researchers first isolated a coronavirus in 1937.
They found a coronavirus responsible for an infectious bronchitis virus in birds that had the ability to devastate poultry stocks. Scientists first found evidence of human coronaviruses (HCoV) in the 1960s in the noses of people with the common cold. Two human coronaviruses are responsible for a large proportion of common colds:OC43 and 229E.
The name “coronavirus” comes from the crown-like projections on their surfaces. “Corona” in Latin means “halo” or “crown.” Symptoms Cold- or flu-like symptoms usually set in from 2–4 days after a coronavirus infection and are typically mild. However, symptoms vary from person-to-person, and some forms of the virus can be fatal. Symptoms include: Sneezing, runny nose, fatigue ,cough ,fever in rare cases ,sore throat ,exacerbated asthma Scientists cannot easily cultivate human coronaviruses in the laboratory unlike the rhinovirus, which is another cause of the common cold. This makes it difficult to gauge the impact of the coronavirus on national economies and public health.
Types Coronaviruses belong to the subfamily Coronavirinae in the familyCoronaviridae. Different types of human coronaviruses vary in how severe the resulting disease becomes, and how far they can spread. Doctors currently recognize seven types of coronavirus that can infect humans.
Rarer strains that cause more severe complications include MERS-CoV, which causes Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), and SARS-CoV, the virus responsible for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
Transmission Limited research is available on how HCoV spreads from one person to the next.
However, researchers believe that the viruses transmit via fluids in the respiratory system, such as mucus.
