Coronavirus

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Coronavirus

Coronavirus continuous

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Coronavirus continuous to the threat to global health As per the latest updates over 113,000 people worldwide have already been infected by Coronavirus, resulting in more than 4000 deaths. Mainland China is still the most affected region in the world where the outbreak first emerged, but the rate of infection is significantly dropping in the country. Meanwhile, it continues to spread across the hundred countries. Some other countries like South Korea also reported slowdown in the virus speed. South Korea reported the least number of daily confirmed cases on Tuesday after carrying out a nationwide screening program test of more than 190000 people. Meanwhile, in other countries, Coronavirus continuous to the threat to global health, resulting in total lockdown in Italy and various states of Iran and Mongolia as well. More than 9000 confirmed cases, Italy becomes the second most affected region after China, which has reported over 80000 confirmed cases so far. The entire country some 60 million people in lockdown by the Italian government to contain the virus to tackle the coronavirus outbreak that has killed 463 people and affected more than 9,000.  Italy has now 9172 infected and 463 that with 733 severe cases. Also, the travel ban in imposed on all sort of arrivals from Italy as per latest instructions by Austria’s chancellor. Spain also reported 1622 cases and 30 deaths so far, which makes it the second most affected country in Europe just after Italy. Greece also lockdown at schools and universities nationwide for two weeks after 89 confirmed cases. Smoking of shisha in all cafes and restaurants in Qatar is also banned as a preventive measure against Coronavirus. Other countries like Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic close also close down its schools and put a temporary ban on all the events and gatherings of more than a hundred peoples. Coronavirus kills 54 individuals in Iran in a day, raising loss of life to more than 290, as Morocco affirms first death. Similarly, in the UK, another person has died from Coronavirus taking the tally up to 6 as the confirmed cases grow to 373, up from 319 the day before. All flights of British Airways are already cancelled to and from Italy after the country was put on lockdown until next month. Along with these, the United States also reported a massive increase in the number of cases where the virus is spread across 20 new States. The total number of cases in the United States are now more than 570, resulting in total deaths of 26. But according to the experts, the actual number of cases can be much more than reported because of lack of testing. Among the 35 patient tested in Washington nursing, 31 of them were found infected with the virus. New York’s senator reported a one-mile “containment zone” would be made in New Rochelle, constraining “major gathering spaces” to check the spread of the infection. New Jersey authorities announced the first death in the state from the Coronavirus. Trump’s new chief of staff Mark is also under self-quarantine for 14 days after coming in contact with an individual at CPAC who was tested positive for Coronavirus. According to US Vice president, he is not being tested for Coronavirus, and he said he is not sure about Trump. Also, the employees like Amazon and Boeing ask their employees to work from home in affected areas. Along with Amazon Microsoft and other companies offering more than $2.5M as a response fund. This will help recovering workers who cannot take sick leave people without health insurance and healthcare workers. Not only health crisis world is facing the worst economic crisis since the great recession of 2008. The virus is likely to cost the economy one trillion dollars during this year. Oil prices are dropped about 25% (there worst since 1991) in New York, and London down stock markets in Europe and Asia. in your trading was briefly suspending after stocks for 1800 points within few minutes. Meanwhile, China seems to have passed the peak of the crisis, and it is returning to stability. Japan announced the second package of measures worth about $4bn in spending to subsist with the fallout, focusing on providing support to small and mid-sized firms, amid mounting concerns about the fragile economy.

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Coronavirus

“Coronavirus Vs. nature”

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  Introduction As the coronavirus epidemic is wide spreading, many are worried about the end of this equation. There are questions about what and when something puts a stop to this virus. Many are waiting for the scientist to come up with a vaccine or treatment. While others are thinking about wondering if nature helps to emulate the Corona virus epidemic. The common belief is that there wiil be a medical cure; a medicine discovery that could help the virus outbreak like many other cases of flu spreads. Is it possible that a rise in temperature can stop this epidemic? Let’s have a closer look at the virus itself, its transition mode, and other aspects which finally can help us conclude of nature will come to our help;   Spreading of coronavirus This virus has nothing to do with air transmission. Breathing the droplets present in the air can cause infection in another person. That means touching the affected surface, eating contaminated food and similar mode of transmission is =the medium for this disease to move body to body and get epidemic. Some of the experts also believe that there is a link between the virus and cold-weather gatherings. They claim that due to cold weather, people are less likely to be in the open air and fresh air flow; they seem to bundle up together in smaller places around the heating sources. Although is this really the case?   The relation between coronavirus and winter There is evidence that coronavirus is not all epidemic in the winter. It is mentioned that the coronavirus is a general term; it refers to a large group of viruses that have some similarities to each other, hence the name. For instance, in the year 2002 to 2003, there was an epidemic that went viral among the people. This outbreak of the coronavirus took place in the middle east. Many people were affected by mild to chronic conditions; while many others lost their lives to this virus. However, this close relative of the novel coronavirus of the year 2019, did not depend on whether changes greatly. This outbreak was as strong as the winter duration. Ultimately, it was controlled by finding a medical cure.   The relation between COVID-19 and winter The novel, coronavirus of 2019, seems to be relevant to the cold hemisphere. Here are two main reasons why experts may think the cold weather has effects on this epidemic outbreak; The start of the outbreak The starting point of this outbreak was at the beginning of the cold spells in china. By the weather changes, it was a sudden boom of the viral infection among the people.   The colder hemisphere While we are going through the winter phase in this time of the years, we seem to be more prone to this virus compared with the southern hemisphere. Cold weather helps to decrease the immunity system and natural defense of the body; making a suitable environment in the host for getting affected with potential virus exposure. In a very similar manner, like the normal flue. Many experts have detected the person to person affective method transmission from this virus. That is the reason they believe lower temperatures are helping the epidemic viral infection.     North hemisphere v. south hemisphere According to these theories, the southern hemisphere will be the next place for the epidemic breakout. This prediction is based on the pathological pattern of the corona virus itself. That is the reason the health experts believe that there may be valid reasons to expect coronavirus in the following months. The basic idea is that by moving ahead in time, the northern part of the earth is getting warmer while the southern parts in facing the winter months afoot. Many of experts believe there must be some preparations accordingly.     Conclusion While there are many theories involved with the modes of transfer and uncalculated factors that affect the epidemic outbreak, public health officials are trying their best to be prepared for unexpected further changes. This policy is not solely about the southern hemisphere; the northern part is also on the watch. This situation is nothing to be taken casually. It has serious consequences and may simply turn to an extreme and out-of-control situation.  

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Coronavirus

Coronavirus Cases Explode in South Korea as China Reports

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Coronavirus Cases Explode in South Korea as China Reports more than 75,000 Infected   The spread of the coronavirus that began with cases reported in the city of Wuhan, China, has now spread to many other parts of the world with South Korea the latest nation to report increasing numbers of diagnoses as the rest of East Asia implements strict measures to contain the disease.   It is reported that some 156 people are now infected with the coronavirus in South Korea, joining Japan and Thailand as nations outside of China grappling with the disease in large numbers.   Though a specific treatment course has not yet been established, many doctors are reporting success after treating patients with a combination of “HIV drugs including lopinavir and ritonavir and the antiviral medication oseltamivir,” Pharmaceutical Technology reports.   One point of controversy for many nations combating the disease is the decision to transport potentially infected people back to their home countries for treatment and/or quarantine.   This was most recently highlighted by the scandal in the UK over the government telling British citizens to stay on the Diamond Princess cruise ship when other nations have evacuated their nationals, the BBC reports. But even that is not without controversy as it is now being reported that the United States’ own citizens that were evacuated from the Diamond Princess rode back on a plane with uninfected passengers against the Centers for Disease Control’s recommendations.   Fourteen of these passengers were infected with the virus, the media is reporting, and government officials believed that they could be sectioned off with a plastic tarp and flown back with healthy passengers – a methodology that the CDC questioned. An official involved with the decision-making process behind allowing infected people to fly back with healthy passengers commented that, “It was like the worst nightmare.   Quite frankly, the alternative could have been pulling grandma out in the pouring rain, and that would have been bad, too.” The logic behind removing the passengers from the stranded cruise ship comes from the fact that the number of cases of coronavirus on the ship were going up by an alarming rate.   When asked about the situation on the Diamond Princess, WHO executive director for health emergencies Michael Ryan said, “Obviously, the situation on the ground changed, and clearly there’s been more transmission than expected on the ship. It’s very easy in retrospect to make judgments on public health decisions made at a certain point.”   CDC principal deputy director Anne Schuchat recommended against putting the passengers together on a plane and questioned the administration’s logic in ignoring her agency’s advice, MSN reports.   “CDC did weigh in on this and explicitly recommended against it. We should not be mentioned as having been consulted as it begs the question of what was our advice,” she wrote in an email.   As the virus spreads many experts are pointing out that it is likely to get worse before it gets better. With a fatality rate of 2 in 100 cases and a highly infectious spread rate, the drive to get the disease under control is expected to remain a large health focus for much of 2020.   https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51555299   https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/coronavirus-infected-americans-flown-home-against-cdcs-advice/ar-BB10ddna   https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/features/coronavirus-affected-countries-thailand-measures-impact-tourism/      

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Coronavirus

What are the symptoms of the coronavirus

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What are the symptoms of the coronavirus and when should you go to the doctor? The coronavirus is one of the viruses that has taken the world by storm in the past few months. It initially started in China during December 2019, and since then it slowly spread all over the globe. This respiratory illness can be very powerful and it’s also associated with death or severe health issues. The problem is that it spreads from person to person very quickly. This brings the question, how can you identify the coronavirus symptoms and when should you go to the doctor? Coronavirus symptoms Maybe the main challenge with the coronavirus is that it has similar symptoms when compared to the regular flu. In fact, coronavirus and the flu are a part of the same viral branch, although there are some differences. The coronavirus symptoms include fever, shortness of breath, mild illness to pneumonia as well as flu symptoms such as fatigue, sore throat and coughing. Who is at risk? While most of the coronavirus cases are coming from the Hubei province in China, the virus has spread in other places all over the world. Regions like Iran, Macau, Laos, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and northern Italy, Cambodia or Hong Kong are prone to the virus since there are many people that already have it there. However, the virus is slowly spreading in Western Europe as well and there are some cases in the US too. So yes, the virus is spreading at a very rapid pace, which is why you need to address it as quickly as possible. Do you really need to isolate yourself? The first thing you want to do is to try and go do the doctor as soon as you experience any of the symptoms above. They can appear out of nowhere, and you need to address them as fast as possible to avoid any complications. There’s no real need to isolate yourself, but proper assistance and support from a doctor might be very helpful. Aside from that, isolating yourself can be a good idea. If you have the virus this is pretty much mandatory, but if you don’t have it this is a good way to prevent any viral infections. Is there a treatment for the coronavirus? Not for now, however there are some treatments in heavy testing. So we can expect people to receive some sort of treatment very soon. Numerous companies in Asia and the US are working really hard to create a cure, but a lot of testing is needed until the treatment is suitable for human consumption. At this time the only thing that we can do is to stay in isolation and away from others to avoid getting/spreading the infection. Humanity is facing many challenges every day, and the coronavirus is certainly one of them. This challenging virus continues to spread all over the world and thousands have died until now. Despite the fact that the virus is very serious and problematic, tens of thousands of people have already gotten better and don’t have the virus anymore. While the coronavirus affects older people mostly, just about anyone can carry it and spread it. That’s why you need to use the preventative methods to avoid any problems!

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Coronavirus

COVID-19-Why do you think BCG-vaccination

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COVID-19-Why do you think BCG-vaccination would protect against COVID-19? Is it real?   COVID-19 is not only successful in infecting people around the world (1), but also obsessed people at the same time with lots of irrelevant things. Who thought this strain of COVID would be stronger than any of its parallel COVID-lines? Who thought this will be highly contagious, spreading with a record speed? Who thought it could be as potent as it stays outside host for hours to days? Who thought it could infect not only immune-compromised people or older people but also people at any age? Who thought this virus could be using healthy human as the best carrier when traveling country to country? Who thought this not only attacks respiratory system but also travel through gastrointestinal tract? Who thought about insisting people “not using face mask” could be dangerous?   No one knew any of these questions or if knew, gave wrong solutions! The list is getting longer and longer. As a matter of fact, now BCG-vaccination is becoming a topic around the world in the context of COVID-19 infection whether western world made a great mistake not practicing BCG-vaccination as part of routine vaccination strategy, with a speculation that BCG-vaccination reduces number of cases of COVID-19 (2). Surprisingly, whether it is true or false, some part of the world (Asia) are not seeing aggressive nature of COVID-19 cases (3). Interestingly, most countries in Asia still believe BCG-vaccination program as one of the important ones protecting against tuberculosis (4). In the Western World, BCG vaccination is no longer recommended due to lack of protection by BCG-vaccination against pulmonary TB. There are also some side effects of early life BCG vaccination when it comes in the context of HIV infection. Western world stopped using BCG because BCG-vaccination induced immunity is not long lasting (5), it decays over ages. Therefore, revaccination with BCG suggested but was not successful.   What is BCG? BCG-vaccine contains live attenuated bacteria. It is given subcutaneously, but it could reach to any places in the body within a short time. Because of this unique ability, BCG-vaccination provides strong immune responses in the lungs even it is administered in a remote place. As I mentioned this vaccine was thought effective against tuberculosis. However, tuberculosis is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis which is a virulent pathogen, different from BCG to some extent, especially some of the antigens are missing in BCG that are present in virulent mycobacteria.   BCG-specific immunity: When it comes to the vaccination against any pathogen, generally, scientists look for specific immunity to raise by the vaccination. Since tuberculosis causing pathogen is an intracellular, meaning immune cells capture mycobacteria and try to kill it while inside by using their machineries. It is believed that T cell-based immunity (type-1) is very effective in killing tuberculosis pathogen. Since this infection is a respiratory, people thought of inducing specific immunity by giving BCG-vaccination through intranasal route. Unfortunately, intranasal route of administration of BCG is not safe especially for children. One, remarkable observation is that even BCG- vaccination is not very effective against pulmonary (lung) TB, this still very effective against other forms of tuberculosis, not formed in the lungs. This is why third world countries still keep BCG as their routine vaccination strategy.   Why BCG-induced immunity would be effective against COVID-19? COVID-19 is completely different pathogen and does not show any similarities with tuberculosis or BCG. There is no scientific evidence yet showing BCG-induced immunity could prevent COVID-19 infection further to spread. Like many other COVIDs, COVID-19 is using similar route to attack humans, displaying symptoms like common cold. Only difference with COVID-19 is that it could lead to aggressive lung infection and results in pneumonia like symptoms. To prevent viral infection, scientists would allow natural immunity to develop because there is no effective medication or successful vaccines available against such flu-like virus. Every year we received vaccines against flu (influenza) which are either not effective or sometimes only effective partially. Interestingly, this virus acquires genetic modification so rapidly and because of this fact ultimately one particular vaccine against same virus may not work for the next year. This is a common problem and perhaps one biggest challenge in the development of vaccine against COVID-19 (6). Now, when a specific vaccine is not working against COVIDs, how one could think BCG-vaccination will provide protection against another pathogen like COVID-19?   Immune response either naturally induced or vaccination-induced, is very complex in nature. Generally two types of immunity can be seen: innate (rapid and non-specific) and adaptive (specific-long-lived). The only advantage of BCG-vaccination is that due to the nature of this vaccine, it induces very strong innate immunity and it is stronger than any other form of vaccines in the history. At the same time, BCG could also act as an adjuvant, meaning could help other vaccines when giving at the same time or in a strategy called prime-boost vaccination. BCG can work as a very good candidate to prime the immune system. When the term ‘priming’ comes, it induces strong innate immune responses, which is generally important to let adaptive immune cells to know. This collaborative effort is very necessary to use all of the tools of the immune system in order to generate effective immune response.   Virus-induced natural immunity: Most of this seasonal flu-virus induced immunity is developed with a week or two. Scientist also aim for inducing humoral (specific antibody) immune responses when targeting vaccine against any of this virus. Since a majority of population are naturally protective against common flu, it is thought that antibody mediated protection is the key, because specific antibody can neutralize the virus. Thus, in the context of BCG-vaccination, one key question is does BCG-vaccination induce specific antibody responses against COVID-19? The answer is likely ‘NO’. But one possibility is that BCG-vaccination is very unique in the sense that this could induce lots of cross-reactive antibodies in the body. This cross-reactive responses sometimes could be effective

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Coronavirus

COVID-19 The Planet turned into an experimental laboratory

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COVID-19: the Planet turned into an experimental laboratory and human became the testing subjects (‘Herd immunity’ vs ‘NO immunity’)   The spread of COVID-19 infection turned the world into a human laboratory. I know you don’t want to be part of this experiment but you like to hear about the results of an ongoing experiment around the globe. Maybe it is time to share how scientists in the laboratory perform an experiment. Generally, it is really not a big deal about knowing something that is not your area of interest. But it is a big deal to develop a system with maximum accuracy in any discipline because people expect to see that the system should work with full potential and accuracy. Therefore, whatever you do or wherever you might belong to there are some inherent steps that are obligatory to maintain. Because of the nature of COVID-19 transmission, it is highly recommended in each country to either maintain social distancing (voluntarily) or set extraordinary restrictions on free movement or any sort of assembly. This is our experiment and we all are part of it. But if you go deeper and deeper how an experiment is designed and finally performed in the laboratory is not just like that. The experiments require many fundamental basics to meet before you perform it. Otherwise, it could easily give you a result that cannot be useful or sometimes very detrimental. Depending on the nature of a laboratory experiment one should carefully plan the experiment. For instance, imagine you would like to test a vaccine in mice, the first thing is that these experimental mice need to be housed in a clean environment, with good health, access to food and water and so on. Those are the basics needs before mice receive a vaccine injection. After vaccination, the mice immune systems will react and develop immunity which does need certain time. To confirm if the vaccine is working or not, there are some laboratory testing needed to perform before you announce the results. Unfortunately, either due to lack of knowledge or due to many shortcomings, our planet experiment design was pretty sloppy. There is a number of reasons for that: 1. It is a large scale experiment and no history was available previously 2. Experts never thought we were undergoing an experiment but indeed we are now.. 3. No significant knowledge about the speed of transmission of COVID-19 4. No prediction about who will get infected and who will be vulnerable and who will be recovered 5. Lack of prediction on whether to use a mask or not but declared using a mask, in general, is harmful 6. Of course no medication available All of these above are significant limitations that drove the world into ‘Quarantine’ mode. Few countries showed that extreme social distancing and complete lockdown potentially reduces the cases and spread to the community. For example, South Korea, China was very successful. Because they performed their experiment by maintaining the standard. Other countries, impose FAKE social distancing and finally lockdown but unfortunately, it was late to limit the spread of the infection. Like, USA, Italy, Spain didn’t follow the basic standard of an experiment and it turned out to generate results that are BAD RESULTS. Interestingly, one lesson from ‘BAD data’ is that you can think of sorting the flaws out and do the experiment in a proper way. Some countries still have that opportunity to take the findings seriously to perform their own experiment. One country on the planet, Sweden is doing a completely different experiment, which is following social distancing only at a very minimal level. It is not that Sweden is not hit by the virus but the cases are relatively low when you compare with other EU countries like Germany, Spain, Italy. Interestingly, Swedes believe in ‘Herd Immunity’. What is ‘Herd Immunity” Herd immunity is something that let people develop immunity against infection or foreign pathogens by natural exposure. So, instead of saying people ‘STAY HOME’ they give the freedom of choice to the people to do normal business, daily work so that enough people become immune against COVID-19. This experiment is not bad but again, this didn’t follow the standard criteria of performing an experiment. For example, This hypothesis is too early to test in the community because there is not much knowledge about this virus in terms of nature of transmission (already found in the stool), colonization and viral load, fitness in the environment, interaction in the upper or lower respiratory tract, and most importantly, when and what type of immune responses would be protective and available in the human body and what group (age) of people will generate this protective immune response are still not available. Sweden is a big country relative to the total number of population. They do have already unwanted social distancing in the society in place to some extent which is comparable to what we in other countries are practicing now. We should not compare Apple to Orange, but it is time to think cautiously. Even under lots of privileges, Sweden is not up to the mark of Diagnosis of COVID-19 cases and people with symptoms strictly advised to ‘STAY HOME’. This is not the time to test a hypothesis in the general population by taking risk of elderly people’s life and letting younger to generate Herd Immunity. Lots of scientific evidence are desperately needed to go that direction.   Dr. Jubayer Rahman (PhD in Infectious Immunology), Maryland, USA

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Coronavirus

 Coronavirus Cases Explode in South Korea as China

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Coronavirus Coronavirus Cases Explode in South Korea as China Reports 75,000 Infected The spread of the coronavirus that began with cases reported in the city of Wuhan, China, has now spread to many other parts of the world with South Korea the latest nation to report increasing numbers of diagnoses as the rest of East Asia implements strict measures to contain the disease.   It is reported that some 156 people are now infected with the coronavirus in South Korea, joining Japan and Thailand as nations outside of China grappling with the disease in large numbers.   Though a specific treatment course has not yet been established, many doctors are reporting success after treating patients with a combination of “HIV drugs including lopinavir and ritonavir and the antiviral medication oseltamivir,” Pharmaceutical Technology reports.   One point of controversy for many nations combating the disease is the decision to transport potentially infected people back to their home countries for treatment and/or quarantine.   This was most recently highlighted by the scandal in the UK over the government telling British citizens to stay on the Diamond Princess cruise ship when other nations have evacuated their nationals, the BBC reports. But even that is not without controversy as it is now being reported that the United States’ own citizens that were evacuated from the Diamond Princess rode back on a plane with uninfected passengers against the Centers for Disease Control’s recommendations.   Fourteen of these passengers were infected with the virus, the media is reporting, and government officials believed that they could be sectioned off with a plastic tarp and flown back with healthy passengers – a methodology that the CDC questioned. An official involved with the decision-making process behind allowing infected people to fly back with healthy passengers commented that, “It was like the worst nightmare.   Quite frankly, the alternative could have been pulling grandma out in the pouring rain, and that would have been bad, too.” The logic behind removing the passengers from the stranded cruise ship comes from the fact that the number of cases of coronavirus on the ship were going up by an alarming rate.   When asked about the situation on the Diamond Princess, WHO executive director for health emergencies Michael Ryan said, “Obviously, the situation on the ground changed, and clearly there’s been more transmission than expected on the ship. It’s very easy in retrospect to make judgments on public health decisions made at a certain point.”   CDC principal deputy director Anne Schuchat recommended against putting the passengers together on a plane and questioned the administration’s logic in ignoring her agency’s advice, MSN reports.   “CDC did weigh in on this and explicitly recommended against it. We should not be mentioned as having been consulted as it begs the question of what was our advice,” she wrote in an email.   As the virus spreads many experts are pointing out that it is likely to get worse before it gets better. With a fatality rate of 2 in 100 cases and a highly infectious spread rate, the drive to get the disease under control is expected to remain a large health focus for much of 2020.   https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51555299   https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/coronavirus-infected-americans-flown-home-against-cdcs-advice/ar-BB10ddna   https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/features/coronavirus-affected-countries-thailand-measures-impact-tourism/      

60 Minutes
Coronavirus

60 Minutes Australia -undercover at wet markets

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A journalist goes undercover at wet markets where the Coronavirus started 60 Minutes Australia Coronavirus estimates about the disaster that is getting more threatening every day. It can be more lethal than terrorism. According to Professor Gabriel Leung, who led the fight against the SARS virus, it can affect more than 60% of the world population, and 45 million of us might be killed by it. Time is not far away when the Australian streets will be under strict observation and screening as well. As none of the countries so far is entirely successful in containment. Alone in the HK, 7 million people are affected by the Corona Virus in some way. Hongkong’s busiest markets are shut down. Shopping malls, Amusement parks are deserted. People are requested to stay at home, avoiding unnecessary outdoor visits. Restaurants are taking mandatory temperature checks for all the customers since the outbreak emerged across the border in China. But the people are acting discipline and under control, as they have already lived through a deadly disease of SARS. This might only be the start, but people only come out in masks already, almost all public places are empty for fear of infection in other parts of the world as well. Business and economic markets are in a panic. This may seem extreme, but this is a new norm, and this calls for strict infection control. This might sound frightening, but a little bit of anxiety will give you extra motivation to take precautions. According to Gabriel Leung, Coronavirus is hard to control as it is far more infective than SARS. It spreads more quickly than it. That’s growth rate becomes exponential if left unchecked like in China and South Korea. He also suspected the actual number of cases could be far more than the reported. As actual figures could affect the Chinese economy severely with the controlled press, the Chinese Government is accused of massive coverup, which includes the detaining of the whistleblower doctor who was later died in China. As China is already putting pressure on the World Health Organisation for not declaring the Coronavirus outbreak pandemic, avoid panic among the people. Coronavirus has already struck more than a hundred countries. And the professor’s predictions are frightening. With the current mortality rate, considering his estimation, around 45 million of us can lose our lives only in the first wave of the virus. We have to prepare for the possibility of the second wave. Many experts believe that Coronavirus originated in the colony of bats during the probably during the handling process in Wuhan, China, or through the most trafficked wild animals in the world, Pangolin, who is high on the menu these days. The virus crossed the species barrier infecting humans via these wet markets present all over Asia, mostly in China. Thailand Indonesia, Lao, Cambodia, Burma also reported having active wild animal trading markets. China already closed over 20,000 wet markets, but wildlife markets are still operating across Asia. And their Government ensured the closure of these markets, but an undercover operation in Bangkok revealed that the business is still active. They might have discovered a similar place where the first Coronavirus was transferred to humans from the animal. It was exposed that the Thailand authorities are not taking the threat of Coronavirus seriously. All kinds of smuggled wild animals are reported being traded at this market, spreading diseases like AIDS, SARS, and now a pandemic disease of Coronavirus. All the wild animals were extracted from their natural habitats brought here, traveling thousands of kilometers and probably already visited by hundreds of customers in one day. The next global pandemic can quickly emerge in one of these cages as dozens of species are kept together in small cages, animals that are not found together in their natural habitats. These animals are not immune to viruses found in each other, so these viruses can also be passed to humans who handle them. To avoid the next global pandemic, we might have to shut down all the wildlife animal markets across the world. Our response to the source of this deadly virus must be equally global as our response to coronavirus disaster is global. Otherwise, it can expand or reemerge as a new and more deadly mother nature revenge. In case you’re infected, your friends, family, colleagues might have already infected before you even show up symptoms of Coronavirus. But your life mainly depends upon your age, and how the authorities handle your situation. According to Professor Gabriel, people over 65 are 20 times more likely to die from Coronavirus as compared to people under 65, so the outbreak of the virus in any nursing Home could be ominous. As it is already observed in other countries that the speed of Coronavirus is exponential, cases are already being discovered in Australia. Now is the right time to put about everything we have to fight the virus. By utilizing all our resources quickly and efficiently, we might be able to buy sufficient time to develop a cure for it if you are extremely lucky. According to Director of intensive care at Royal Melbourne Hospital, Chris MacIsaac, the staff is at the highest alert recorded in modern history. Similar to other hospitals, his hospital’s is equipped with a pandemic mode, which was never used before. And he is pretty confident about his and is staff preparation to fight the Coronavirus, they are already preparing an emergency pandemic response to cope with the attack of the virus, and it’s ready to go. Australia’s number of confirmed deaths is only three among the 80 confirmed infected cases, but Professor Leung suspects there maybe doesn’t or hundreds of cases yet to be revealed. As for every death, 80 to 100 confirmed cases are expected to be detected, three deaths among 80 conclude that either test is not being conducted effectively or extensively enough. According to Gabriel Leung, the Australian health system might get dangerously overloaded, but it is

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Coronavirus

Covid-19 -Alone you’re strong but together you’re stronger

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Covid-19  Alone you’re strong….together you’re stronger (you believe or not, COVID19 does) This is true- -COVID19 virus follows the same theory to infect millions and many people around the globe. COVID19 is extremely different from other COVIDs which individuals may need to experience a minimum of at the extent of transmission from human to human. People experience normal flu-like symptoms with other COVIDs and still can choose work. However, when COVID19 emerged (does not mean other COVIDs are gone), immediately took the lead and surpassed all the previous records within the rate of transmission. Second, elderly people or people with some underlying conditions get seriously ill by COVID19. due to our curiosity, one question centered ‘why the transmission is so fast’? and ‘why only a group of people (elderly) heavily hit by this virus? A group of scientists from Germany and the UK performed this recent study among 9 patients of COVID19 cases to know one key question why this virus is so different than other COVIDs in terms of infection, pathogenicity, and transmission. All 9 patients had mild symptoms and didn’t develop severe lung pneumonia-like symptoms. Unlike other COVIDs, COVID19 virus particles don’t get to go deeper into the tract to cause infection. Other COVIDs got to attend the lower tract to be ready to cause infection. However, COVID19 colonize at a high density within the upper tract even before getting to the lower tract. On top of that COVID19 replication 4-7 fold quite other COVIDs. So, two key factors: an extremely higher rate of replication and skill to colonize within the upper respiratory area explain why person infected with COVID-19 is often easily shedding this virus into the environment or to a different person coming in close contact.it’s just millions of times more doses people are exposed, therefore either carrying it to the next person or develop disease symptoms. This research highlighted one unexpected observation in one patient who got two different COVID19 as shown in samples from two different places from the body. They observed one mutation within the COVID19 isolated from an equivalent person also as original COVID19 as other patients had. This is also alarming how fast this virus may acquire a mutation. To be ready to establish disease in a person, a virus must be won against the human defense system, which is extremely delicate and organized at different layers. COVID19 has been successful in breaking this defense due to the facility of replication. When the doses of a viral particle are so high human system especially people with suboptimal immunity gets breached and the virus gains full control over the overall immunity. This study also checked antibodies against COVID-19 in those patients and only found detectable levels 7-14 days post-infection. Because of the higher replication rate in the upper respiratory tract, a nasal swab is so successful for the diagnosis of COVID19. Therefore the basic math that you simply can obviously imagine, when virus multiplication is so rapid, shedding virus particle would be also higher. Everything you’ll multiply by an element of millions (x106). Due to this nature, millions and millions of people are getting this virus. So this is really the fact ‘alone you are strong but together you are stronger’.     Reported by Dr. Jubayer Rahman (PhD in Infectious Immunology), Maryland, USA

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Coronavirus

Why do you think BCG-vaccination would protect against COVID-19?

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BCG-vaccination   Why do you think BCG-vaccination would protect against COVID-19? Is it real?   COVID-19 is not only successful in infecting people around the world (1) but also obsessed people at the same time with lots of irrelevant things. Who thought this strain of COVID would be stronger than any of its parallel COVID-lines? Who thought this will be highly contagious, spreading with a record speed? Who thought it could be as potent as it stays outside host for hours to days? Who thought it could infect not only immune-compromised people or older people but also people at any age? Who thought this virus could be using healthy human as the best carrier when traveling from country to country? Who thought this not only attacks the respiratory system but also travels through the gastrointestinal tract? Who thought about insisting people “not using face mask” could be dangerous? No one knew any of these questions or if knew, gave wrong solutions! The list is getting longer and longer. As a matter of fact, now BCG-vaccination is becoming a topic around the world in the context of COVID-19 infection whether the western world made a great mistake not practicing BCG-vaccination as part of routine vaccination strategy, with speculation that BCG-vaccination reduces the number of cases of COVID-19 (2). Surprisingly, whether it is true or false, some parts of the world (Asia) are not seeing the aggressive nature of COVID-19 cases (3). Interestingly, most countries in Asia still believe the BCG-vaccination program as one of the important ones protecting against tuberculosis (4). In the Western World, BCG vaccination is no longer recommended due to a lack of protection by BCG-vaccination against pulmonary TB. There are also some side effects of early life BCG vaccination when it comes in the context of HIV infection. The western world stopped using BCG because BCG-vaccination induced immunity is not long-lasting (5), it decays overages. Therefore, revaccination with BCG suggested but was not successful. What is BCG? BCG-vaccine contains live attenuated bacteria. It is given subcutaneously, but it could reach to any place in the body within a short time. Because of this unique ability, BCG-vaccination provides strong immune responses in the lungs even it is administered in a remote place. As I mentioned this vaccine was thought effective against tuberculosis. However, tuberculosis is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis which is a virulent pathogen, different from BCG to some extent, especially some of the antigens are missing in BCG that is present in virulent mycobacteria. BCG-specific immunity: When it comes to the vaccination against any pathogen, generally, scientists look for specific immunity to raise by the vaccination. Since tuberculosis causing pathogen is intracellular, meaning immune cells capture mycobacteria and try to kill it while inside by using their machinery. It is believed that T cell-based immunity (type-1) is very effective in killing tuberculosis pathogens. Since this infection is respiratory, people thought of inducing specific immunity by giving BCG-vaccination through the intranasal route. Unfortunately, the intranasal route of administration of BCG is not safe, especially for children. One, remarkable observation is that even BCG- vaccination is not very effective against pulmonary (lung) TB, this still very effective against other forms of tuberculosis, not formed in the lungs. This is why third world countries still keep BCG as their routine vaccination strategy.   Why BCG-induced immunity would be effective against COVID-19? COVID-19 is a completely different pathogen and does not show any similarities with tuberculosis or BCG. There is no scientific evidence yet showing BCG-induced immunity could prevent COVID-19 infection further to spread. Like many other COVIDs, COVID-19 is using a similar route to attack humans, displaying symptoms like the common cold. The only difference with COVID-19 is that it could lead to aggressive lung infection and results in pneumonia-like symptoms. To prevent viral infection, scientists would allow natural immunity to develop because there is no effective medication or successful vaccines available against such flu-like virus. Every year we received vaccines against flu (influenza) which are either not effective or sometimes only effective partially. Interestingly, this virus acquires genetic modification so rapidly and because of this fact ultimately one particular vaccine against the same virus may not work for the next year. This is a common problem and perhaps one biggest challenge in the development of a vaccine against COVID-19 (6). Now, when a specific vaccine is not working against COVIDs, how one could think BCG-vaccination will provide protection against another pathogen like COVID-19? Immune response either naturally induced or vaccination-induced is very complex in nature. Generally, two types of immunity can be seen: innate (rapid and non-specific) and adaptive (specific-long-lived). The only advantage of BCG-vaccination is that due to the nature of this vaccine, it induces very strong innate immunity and it is stronger than any other form of vaccines in history. At the same time, BCG could also act as an adjuvant, meaning could help other vaccines when giving at the same time or in a strategy called prime-boost vaccination. BCG can work as a very good candidate to prime the immune system. When the term ‘priming’ comes, it induces strong innate immune responses, which is generally important to let adaptive immune cells to know. This collaborative effort is very necessary to use all of the tools of the immune system in order to generate an effective immune response. Virus-induced natural immunity: Most of these seasonal flu-virus induced immunity is developed with a week or two. The scientist also aims for inducing humoral (a specific antibody) immune response when targeting a vaccine against any of this virus. Since a majority of the population are naturally protective against common flu, it is thought that antibody-mediated protection is the key, because specific antibody can neutralize the virus. Thus, in the context of BCG-vaccination, one key question is does BCG-vaccination induce specific antibody responses against COVID-19? The answer is likely ‘NO’. But one possibility is that BCG-vaccination is very unique in the sense that this could induce lots of cross-reactive

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