Coronavirus: Symptoms, Transmission, and Prevention

The Coronavirus, originating in Wuhan, has been spreading to other parts of the world, alongside fear and caution, but it’s not all that scary. Here’s all you need to know:

Symptoms

As we already know from the first reports, illnesses are quite random and range from mild sickness to severe illness, but the symptoms generally include a fever, coughing and shortness of breath. The CDC estimates that the coronavirus symptoms may appear anywhere between 2 days to 14 days after exposure or infection. In short, even if it might just be a cold, but you experience these symptoms, you should definitely visit a hospital. Just to make sure.

Transmission

Again, as has previously been said, and studied by many, the coronaviruses are a family of viruses common in animals, but rarely infectious to the human species, although of course, there are exceptions.

Previous cases of MERS and SARS have showed that when it comes to a coronavirus spreading from person to person, the main ways to get infected are by respiratory droplets produced by infected people coughing or sneezing. Also, a good thing to know is that while the CDC believes the virus to be quite a serious health threat to the public, the immediate health risk to the general American public from the virus is quite low at the time, as the virus is still being studied and investigated.

Prevention

Well, the most obvious way to avoid the 2019-nCoV is to not be exposed to it! Duh! Although, on a more serious note, currently there is no vaccine, as the virus is relatively new and as we mentioned before still under investigation, so the CDC has made a list of several steps you could take to prevent all kinds of respiratory viruses, not only this one:

Washing your hands often for at least 20 seconds with soap, avoid close contact with sick people, stay home if you’re under the weather, wear a mask or cover yourself with a tissue when you sneeze/cough, keep your everyday-use objects clean and disinfect them, and also avoid touching your face if your hands are dirty or unwashed. - Centers for Disease Control on Coronavirus prevention.

That’s an extensive list, but most normal people do most of these actions anyway, but there’s no harm in being a little more careful till a specific treatment is developed. If you believe you may be infected, once again, it’s best to go see an Doctor to make ensure that you’re not.