1. The coronaviruses

Coronaviruses (CoVs) are the largest group of viruses belonging to the Nidovirales order. The name “coronavirus” comes from the Latin “corona”, which means crown, due to its characteristic appearance that resembles a crown or solar corona.

The Coronaviruses

APJO COVID-19 FAQs

1.1a SARS-CoV-2

q2

CoV can induce respiratory, gastrointestinal and neurological dysfunction in their hosts and predominately respiratory infections in human. 

A total of seven species of coronavirus are found to be pathogenic to humans:

Species (1) HKU1, (2) OC43, (3) NL63 and (4) 229E: Mild upper respiratory tract infections

Species (5) SARS-CoV, (6) MERS-CoV and (7) SARS-2-CoV: Zoonotic and life threatening

1.1b SARS-CoV-2 vs SARS-CoV vs MERS-CoV

1b table

SARS was first known to human in 2002–2003, starting in Guangdong Province of China, infecting 8,098 people worldwide and with a CFR of 9.6%. MERS-CoV, on the other hand, first appeared in 2012 in Saudi Arabia, infected almost 2,500 people, mainly in the Middle East and Korea and with a high CFR of 34.4%. Recently, a new member to the coronavirus family, SARS-CoV-2, has led to a large-scale pandemic with an estimated CFR of 3.4%.

References

1. Peiris JSM, Guan Y & Yuen KY (2004): Severe acute respiratory syndrome. Nature Medicine 10: S88-S97.

2. Guan W, Ni Z, Hu Y, et al. (2020): Clinical Characteristics of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in China. New England Journal of Medicine. In press
Weiss SR & Leibowitz JL (2011): Coronavirus Pathogenesis. Advances in Virus Research 81: 85-164.

3. McBride R, Van Zyl M & Fielding CB (2014): The Coronavirus Nucleocapsid Is a Multifunctional Protein. Viruses 6: 2991-3018.

4. Fehr AR & Perlman S (2015): Coronaviruses: An Overview of Their Replication and Pathogenesis Coronaviruses: Methods and Protocols. New York, NY.

5. Matoba Y, Abiko C, Ikeda T, et al. (2015): Detection of the Human Coronavirus 229E, HKU1, NL63, and OC43 between 2010 and 2013 in Yamagata. Japan. Japanese Journal of Infectious Diseases 68: 138-141.

6. Zhu N, Zhang D, Wang W, et al. (2020): A Novel Coronavirus from Patients with Pneumonia in China, 2019. New England Journal of Medicine 382: 727-733.

7. Zumla A, Hui DS & Perlman S (2015): Middle East respiratory syndrome. The Lancet 386: 995-1007.

8. Lau SKP, Woo PCY, Li KSM, et al. (2005): Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-like virus in Chinese horseshoe bats. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 102: 14040.

9. Kayali G & Peiris M (2015): A more detailed picture of the epidemiology of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus. The Lancet Infectious Diseases 15: 495-497.

10. Zhou P, Yang X-L, Wang X-G, et al. (2020): A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin. Nature 579: 270-273.

11. Poon LLM, Guan Y, Nicholls JM, et al. (2004): The aetiology, origins, and diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome. The Lancet Infectious Diseases 4: 663-671.

1.2 The Coronavirus Explained & What You Should Do 

1.3 Viruses vs. Bacteria | What’s The Difference?

1.4 Swine Flu Pandemic

1.5 Coronavirus could attack immune system like HIV by targeting protective cells

1.5 CoV HIV

1.6 When and How Will COVID-19 End?

1.7 Can People Be Reinfected With Coronavirus?