Interesting facts about SARS corona viruses
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A new virus has been keeping the world under its spell since the beginning of 2020. The starting point of the pandemic of the respiratory disease COVID-19 ("Coronavirus Disease 2019"), or "Corona Pandemic" for short, caused by this new virus was the city of Wuhan in China. Initially treated as a local phenomenon, this new viral disease quickly developed into an epidemic in China, which was difficult to control due to the sheer number of people affected and the specific symptoms alone (severe bilateral pneumonia and acute lung failure - hence SARS = Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). Due to today's global networking and the rapid accessibility of almost every major city in the world via air travel, it was only a matter of time before the virus and the associated lung disease spread all over the world within a very short time. In this way, COVID-19 developed into the third major pandemic of the 21st century alongside the SARS pandemic of 2002/2003 and the swine flu (2009/10). The devastating socio-economic effects alone are far from assessable in their entirety and will probably lead to a break not only in economic thinking but also in the way people live in many countries. The pandemic is a sudden demonstration of the disadvantages of a global world based on the division of labor, which are often ignored in the general discussion, and which only really become apparent as soon as there are crisis developments. One need only think of the temporary or permanent interruption of supply chains or, more generally, of the obstacles to the exchange of goods and services as-sociated with pandemic measures. In addition, there are also the effects that directly or indirectly affect every-one, such as the loss or restriction of freedom of move-ment due to quarantine measures, loss of income due to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, and per-sonal "inconveniences" such as a general obligation to wear masks. Since the virus disease is also very selective (high risk of older people with previous illnesses) and many, especially younger people and healthy middle-aged people survive an infection with the corona virus in most cases (but not always!) without symptoms or only with slight flu-like symptoms, the acceptance of measures to contain the pandemic will predictably decrease as the pandemic progresses. This leads to new problems and challenges that politicians in particular must face. It can only be hoped that it will be possible to develop vaccines as quickly as possible that will provide the most durable immunity possible against the corona-virus SARS-CoV-2 and that are available worldwide at reasonable conditions. But one thing already seems to be emerging. The virus will certainly - similar to the flu (in-fluenza) - accompany us for a long time to come.
The topic of this book, however, is not the disease COVID-19 and its epidemiology, but the virus itself. Nowadays, everyone has the word "virus" in their mouths, but what viruses are actually about, how they are structured and how they "work" exactly, there is of-ten only rudimentary knowledge about this (unless you are a doctor or biologist). This "knowledge gap" is what this book is intended to help close in an entertaining way on a popular scientific level.
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Interesting facts about SARS corona viruses - Mathias Scholz
Copyright 2020 Mathias Scholz, builderall-power.de
Mathias Scholz
Zittau, Germany
mathias.scholz@t-online.de
The work including all its parts is protected by copyright. Any use not expressly permitted by copyright law requires prior consent. This applies in particular to reproduction, editing, translation and microfilming.
The reproduction of common names, trade names, trade descriptions, etc. in this work does not entitle the user to assume that such names are to be considered free in the sense of trademark and brand protection legislation and may therefore be used by anyone, even without special marking.
Interesting facts about SARS corona viruses
Mathias Scholz
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
A brief history of viruses
The smallpox vaccination
Bacteria as triggers for infectious diseases
Rabies
Plants also suffer from infectious diseases
Bacteriophages
Electron Microscopy
Molecular Genetics
Functionality of viruses
Detection of even smaller infectious particles than viruses
Modern Virology and Viral Infectious Diseases
Design and structure of viruses
Virions
Capsids
Peplomere
Genetic Molecules
Differences from living cells
Some basics ...
What are proteins?
DNA and RNA
Transcription and Translation
Replication
Corona viruses
How Corona Viruses work
Replication cycle
Adsorption
COVID-19 clinical picture
Infection and incubation time
Symptoms of severe corona disease
Origin of the SARS coronavirus
Natural reservoir of the SARS virus
Rumor mill
Danger of new zoonoses
Pandemic spread of COVID-19
Was there a historical predecessor of COVID-19?
Virus defense
Immune system
Viral antigens and their antibodies
Antibody-based vaccines
The fast solution - Monoclonal antibodies
Gene-based vaccines
Vector viruses
Test procedure for the coronavirus
Overview of test methods
PCR = Polymerase Chain Reaction
Serological tests (ELISA test procedure)
Antigen tests
Outlook
Introduction
Anew virus has been keeping the world under its spell since the beginning of 2020. The starting point of the pandemic of the respiratory disease COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019
), or Corona Pandemic
for short, caused by this new virus was the city of Wuhan in China. Initially treated as a local phenomenon, this new viral disease quickly developed into an epidemic in China, which was difficult to control due to the sheer number of people affected and the specific symptoms alone (severe bilateral pneumonia and acute lung failure - hence SARS = Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ). Due to today's global networking and the rapid accessibility of almost every major city in the world via air travel, it was only a matter of time before the virus and the associated lung disease spread all over the world within a very short time. In this way, COVID-19 developed into the third major pandemic of the 21st century alongside the SARS pandemic of 2002/2003 and the swine flu (2009/10). The devastating socio-economic effects alone are far from assessable in their entirety and will probably lead to a break not only in economic thinking but also in the way people live in many countries. The pandemic is a sudden demonstration of the disadvantages of a global world based on the division of labor, which are often ignored in the general discussion, and which only really become apparent as soon as there are crisis developments. One need only think of the temporary or permanent interruption of supply chains or, more generally, of the obstacles to the exchange of goods and services associated with pandemic measures. In addition, there are also the effects that directly or indirectly affect everyone, such as the loss or restriction of freedom of movement due to quarantine measures, loss of income due to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, and personal inconveniences
such as a general obligation to wear masks. Since the virus disease is also very selective (high risk of older people with previous illnesses) and many, especially younger people and healthy middle-aged people survive an infection with the corona virus in most cases (but not always!) without symptoms or only with slight flu-like symptoms, the acceptance of measures to contain the pandemic will predictably decrease as the pandemic progresses. This leads to new problems and challenges that politicians in particular must face. It can only be hoped that it will be possible to develop vaccines as quickly as possible that will provide the most durable immunity possible against the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and that are available worldwide at reasonable conditions. But one thing already seems to be emerging. The virus will certainly - similar to the flu (influenza) - accompany us for a long time to come.
The topic of this book, however, is not the disease COVID-19 and its epidemiology, but the virus itself. Nowadays, everyone has the word virus
in their mouths, but what viruses are actually about, how they are structured and how they work
exactly, there is often only rudimentary knowledge about this (unless you are a doctor or biologist). This knowledge gap
is what this book is intended to help close in an entertaining way on a popular scientific level.
Note:
It is not always possible to explain all technical terms that play a role in biology or virology in context. So if you are not familiar with one or the other term, you should at least have a look at Wikipedia.
A brief history of viruses
At the beginning of the scientific discipline known as virology
was the English country doctor Edward Anthony Jenner (1749-1823). In the 18th and 19th century, in which Edward Jenner lived, smallpox (or leaf pox
) was one of the most terrible and widespread infectious diseases, which reached virtually every corner of the world by shipping. Already in the 16th century many millions of the native Indians in America alone fell victim to the disease introduced by the Spaniards. It is estimated that in the course of time about 40% - 50% (some authors estimate even more) of the indigenous population of America fell victim to smallpox. This was simply because there was virtually no immunity to the disease in the native American population at the time, while the European conquerors achieved a relatively high level of infestation through earlier smallpox epidemics and were therefore less susceptible to smallpox than the Indians
.
Face disfigured by pox pustules
In Europe at that time, smallpox was one of the most common causes of death in young children. Every 10th child who fell ill usually died of it. However, once the disease had been overcome (like the young Johann Wolfgang Goethe or even Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), one could enjoy lifelong immunity.
The smallpox vaccination
In addition to smallpox , there is also a rather harmless variant, which is called cowpox
because it mainly affects cattle. However, it can also jump over to humans
, whereby understandably then especially those are endangered who have to do physically - e.g. as milkers - with ill cows. What Edward Jenner (and not only him) noticed was the fact that milkers who had survived a cowpox infection are obviously immune to the real