Right now, many Nigerians are afraid of catching Coronavirus as the deadly disease is fast spreading. The virus has become a pandemic it has killed thousands in Asia, Europe, America and Africa.
Across the world, over 9 thousand deaths have been recorded, while over 225 thousands confirmed cases have also been recorded, according to statistics available. When the news of Coronavirus broke a few months ago in China, many Nigerians said, it won’t kill Africans, especially Nigerians, but the reverse is now the case!
In the last few days, Nigeria has recorded about 8 cases of Coronavirus in the country and it has created tension among the rich and poor. A lot of people are still in doubt whether it would kill Nigerians or not. But before we take you too far, let’s tell you more about the notorious and deadly virus, called Coronavirus.
WHAT IS CORONAVIRUS?
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). These viruses were originally transmitted from animals to people.
The name coronavirus comes from the Latin word corona, meaning crown or halo. Under an electron microscope, they look like they are surrounded by a solar corona.
The novel coronavirus, identified by Chinese authorities on January 7 and since named SARS-CoV-2, is a new strain that had not been previously identified in humans. Little is known about it, although human-to-human transmission has been confirmed.
What are the symptoms?
According to the WHO, signs of infection include fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. In more severe cases, it can lead to pneumonia, multiple organ failure and even death.
According to new findings from a group of doctors look in a hospital in Yunmeng County, Xiaogan City, in China’s central Hubei Province. They have discovered that the people who are at the high risk of contracting the deadly virus, Coronavirus. high blood pressure, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease which are so common among people that everyone reading these words likely knows somebody with, at least, one of these maladies.
UNDERLYING PRESSURE
When it comes to matters of the heart, many people may also be at risk from underlying conditions they don’t even know they have. For example, high blood pressure—or hypertension—contributes to atherosclerosis, a process whereby the walls of a person’s blood vessels grow dense plaques made of fat and tissue fibers. If one of these plaques erodes or ruptures, it could block the blood vessel, leading to a heart attack or stroke.
A study published on February 28, 2020 in the New England Journal of Medicine, for example, examined the age breakdown for 1,099 coronavirus patients. The majority of non-severe cases—60 per cent—are teens and adults between 15 to 49 years old, which might suggest this group is spared the worst of the virus.
Millennials and Gen Z are also just as likely to catch the coronavirus as older groups, according to the largest profile to date on COVID-19, a clinical report of more than 72,000 patients published February 21 by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. So, rather than rely on age to gauge who is most threatened by COVID-19, doctors say you may want to look at common underlying conditions and how they correspond with the death rates reported by the Chinese CDC. Doing so could offer clues on how to protect you and your loved ones.
“The death rate from this outbreak is high. We shouldn’t categorize it by young or senior,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, said during a Monday briefing. “We cannot say that we care about millions when we don’t care about an individual who may be senior or junior … Every individual’s life matters.”
CARDIOVASCULAR COMPLICATIONS
The novel coronavirus tears apart the lungs, but the underlying condition most connected with COVID-19’s worst outcomes are afflictions of the heart. In truth, severe cases were slightly more abundant among the younger demographic. Of the 163 severe cases reported in the study, 41 per cent were young adults, 31 per cent were aged 50 to 64, and 27 per cent were above 65. The only age group spared by severe COVID-19 appears to be kids under 14.
Nearly half the adults living in the United States have high blood pressure. Likewise, diabetes is a household name, with one of every 10 Americans—34.2 million across all ages—dealing with the metabolic disorder. Both can factor into cardiovascular disease, a wide spectrum of disorders that kill one person roughly every 37 seconds in the United States.
Though the specific influence of COVID-19 on the cardiovascular system remains unclear, the American College of Cardiology states, “there have been reports of acute cardiac injury, arrhythmias, hypotension, tachycardia, and a high proportion of concomitant cardiovascular disease in infected individuals, particularly those who require more intense care.” One study of 150 patients from Wuhan, China—the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak—found that patients with cardiovascular diseases had a significantly increased risk of death when they are infected.
That’s because the heart and lungs are incredibly interconnected. Breathe in and out rapidly, and your pulse automatically increases its pace. But if your heart is already weak or you have blocked arteries, then you are working harder than a normal person to circulate blood and oxygen throughout your body.
“If this new virus enters our communities as it has been, I really worry for my cardiac patients,” says Erin Michos, a cardiologist and director of Women’s Cardiovascular Health at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore. “During their day-to-day existence, their heart is having trouble pumping efficiently, and then you add a serious respiratory infection on top of that. That’s the tipping point.”
Cardiac distress is yet another arena where the coronavirus mirrors what happens with the flu. Influenza has long been established as a propellant for heart attacks and cardiovascular disease, so much so that some doctors have wondered if the seasonal virus is a direct cause. A 2018 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that within seven days of a flu diagnosis, people were six times more likely to have a heart attack.
“I don’t think the community fully appreciates it,” Michos says. “We know that viruses can trigger a heart attack or stroke.”
Moreover, people can be infected by more than one disease at the same time, further exacerbating any existing heart conditions. In a preliminary study of coronavirus patients from Wuhan, four per cent of confirmed cases were infected with a second virus, mostly influenza.
“If your immune system is weakened already ‘cause you’re fighting off one major pathogen, you’re much more susceptible to get a secondary infection,” Michos says.
UNDERLYING PRESSURE
When it comes to matters of the heart, many people may also be at risk from underlying conditions they don’t even know they have. For example, high blood pressure—or hypertension—contributes to atherosclerosis, a process whereby the walls of a person’s blood vessels grow dense plaques made of fat and tissue fibers. If one of these plaques erodes or ruptures, it could block the blood vessel, leading to a heart attack or stroke.
ASTHMA ACTION PLAN
Beyond cardiac health, the coronavirus outbreak has serious implications for people with chronic respiratory illnesses such as cystic fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, or allergies, as well as for people with lung damage linked to smoking. Even mild cases of a cold or the flu could aggravate these conditions, increasing one’s chances of landing in the hospital.
