TIME TRAVEL WITH A VIRUS
In December 2019, a
novel type of coronavirus named COVID-19 was identified in Wuhan, China. It has since then spread rapidly all over the country and around the world.
The virus was isolated then and identified as a pathogen on January 6, 2020
after which its genome-wide sequence was decoded a few days after. The World
Health Organization (WHO) had a meeting on January 30, 2020 at which they
declared the viral outbreak from China a public health emergency concern. On
March 11, 2020 the WHO declared the virus outbreak a pandemic and called
countries to take immediate actions to manage the situation.
Flashback to the
mid-1960s, human coronaviruses were first identified and named so for the
crown-like spikes on their surface. They are alpha and beta coronaviruses of
which the MERS-CoV causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome/MERS, the SARS-CoV causes
severe acute respiratory syndrome/SARS and the SARS-CoV-2 the novel one causes
COVID-19.
In March 2020, the Federal
Government of Nigeria announced the closure of primary, secondary and tertiary
institutions signifying the beginning of series of lockdowns to come in the
country.
Everything had begun to
seem under control. People had begun to return to their usual way of life, back
to work and school away from the online life.
Then came the variants.
Viruses constantly change through mutation, sometimes resulting in a new
variant of the virus. Some variants emerge and disappear while others persist.
New ones will continue to emerge. The Delta variant was the first with clinical
significance first identified in India in October 2020 causing more infections
and spreading faster than the original SARS-CoV-2 strain that cause COVID-19, then
came the Omicron variant which was reported by South Africa on the 24th of
November 2021 with even a higher rate of spread.Then there’s the IHU first
detected as a variant in December 2021 which has infected at least 12 people in
the southeast of France but is currently not one to be worried about. The
surprising thing is, it has 46 mutations giving it the possibility of being resistant
to currently administered vaccines.There have even been cases of patients contracting
both influenza and COVID-19 earlier this month, a condition called Florona with
cases in Israel. Then there’s Deltacron which we still have to wait to surface
completely but you would have got an idea of where the name is coming from.
It certainly cannot be
disputed that viruses have come to impact our lives profoundly. They’ve even
influenced our language with words like jabs and booster becoming more commonly
used. Viruses have united and divided us at certain times. People have taken
different stands like being anti-vax or pro-vaccine depending on how convinced
they are about vaccines. Some people have even joked about being trans-vaccinated,
not being vaccinated but ‘identifying’ as vaccinated persons
Till present day corona viruses
have caused disruption in our usual activities. One wouldn’t even be wrong to
say that they have come to stay. It seems like the best one can do is to
protect oneself as much as one can and then recover after coming down with
them.Though there have been cases of associated post-trauma and depression with
time they should be addressed through mental health awareness.
The US Centre for Disease Control states that “While vaccines reduce your risk of illness, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19, we don’t yet know effective they will be against new variants that may arise.” The use of masks and frequent hand washing still remain the best way to reduce the incidence of the disease.
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