Story of Corona viruses | Pandemic | COVID-19 | Infection | MERS | SARS-Cov | Diseases

Story of Coronavirus

Everyone might be aware of COVID-19. But only a few may know the different strains of coronaviruses.  In the late 1930s, Coronaviruses were discovered in chicken that was infected by infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) but later in the 1960s only human Coronaviruses were discovered. The first strain was termed as B814 (number of the nasal washing) from a study conducted at Common Cold Unit of the British Medical Research Council by Kendall, Malcom Byone, and David Tyrrell. They found out that the virus could not be cultivated by a standard testing procedure. Eventually, Dorothy Hamre and John Procknow at The University of Chicago isolated a novel virus 229E, when both were inoculated, it caused cold in the volunteers, and the virus was inactivated by ether.

Common 4 human coronaviruses that have a mild infection

• 229E (alpha coronavirus)
• NL63 (alpha coronavirus)
• OC43 (beta coronavirus)
• HKU1 (beta coronavirus)

The other 3 types of coronavirus that causes severe infection:

1. MERS-CoV (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS), is caused by the beta coronavirus group. The first case was reported in June 2012 in Saudi Arabia. The mode of infection is found to be from camels but some  scientists believe that it may be from bats. A larger outbreak occurred in South Korea (2015)  and in Saudi Arabia(2018). There is no specific vaccine or treatment for this disease.
   
2.  Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus(SARS-CoV), is a type of coronavirus that infects bats. It also infects humans and certain mammals. It is a member of beta coronavirus. Two strains have been found for the outbreak during 2002-04. Bats are the main host for many of the strains of SARS-Cov. In 2016, WHO has found out that the future epidemic may occur after the ebola outbreak.
3. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is a  strain of SARS-Cov that causes COVID-19. The origin of this virus is believed to be from Wuhan, China. In January 2020, human to human transmission was confirmed. This disease has been declared a  pandemic by WHO.
   

541–542	Plague of Justinian
1346–1350	The Black Death
1899–1923	Sixth cholera pandemic
1918–1920	Spanish flu (H1N1)
1957–1958	Asian flu (H2N2)
1968–1969	Hong Kong flu
2009–2010	Swine flu (H1N1)
2019	COVID-19

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 Fig: List of  Pandemic Diseases

                            

 

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