You’re probably living under a rock if you haven’t heard of the Coronavirus. If in case you do live under a rock and haven’t heard of the trending Coronavirus, it is a type of virus that causes diseases in birds and mammals. This virus attacks the respiratory system, therefore making it hard to breathe and can cause severe pneumonia. Symptoms include fever, coughing and shortness of breath and will start to appear 2 to 14 days after exposure to the virus. This virus has killed at least 426 people and infected more than 20,000 globally. So how and why did this coronavirus suddenly became to centre of attention of many?
Well, it all started in Wuhan, China at a market selling live poultry, seafood and wild animals. The virus have most likely spread from the animals to the locals, and now have already spread to other countries such as Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Japan and even Malaysia. It has already caused its first death outside of China in the Philippines on Sunday, 2nd of February which caused panic to arise among many.
“This is the first known death of someone with 2019-nCoV outside of China,” the World Health Organization’s office in the Philippines said in a statement, using the technical shorthand for the coronavirus.
In response to all this, China has already built a hospital, the Huoshenhan Hospital, dedicated to treating the coronavirus within 10 days. The citizens in Wuhan who have close contact with confirmed carriers of the virus have been sent to centralized isolation and quarantine to prevent the virus from spreading any further.
Will this outbreak ever end? Brian Resnick, a science reporter working at Vox reported,
“Disease outbreaks are a bit like fires. The virus is the flame. Susceptible people are the fuel. Eventually a fire burns itself out if it runs out of kindling. A virus outbreak will end when it stops finding susceptible people to infect,”
So should I be worried about this virus, you ask? Well, as of today, no vaccines have been made to cure this disease but the risk of even getting the virus is as close to zero in Brunei, as there aren’t any cases with people getting infected by the virus yet, but just to stay safe, stay healthy and try to maintain good hygiene. If you are sick, wear a surgical mask to minimize the risk of infections.
The Equinox 