Novel coronavirus

Novel coronavirus

            Viruses are extremely dangerous if contacted because they have no cure. Sure there are vaccines that help slow the rate in which a virus reproduces but, the sad truth is that there is no cure. A new virus however has emerged from Saudi Arabia knew as the corona virus which, similar to HIV it is retrovirus so it binds to a host cell and it injects its viral genome into the cell there the enzyme called reverse transcriptase, begins the process of converting the virus’s RNA into DNA which then is implanted into the cells nucleolus. In the nucleolus the DNA of the virus is added to the DNA of the cell and causes the cell to then create new viruses, which move out the cell to infect other host cells. This new virus as stated in the article, is “a threat to the entire world”. Due to he fact that this is a new virus there really is not any information about it making it very difficult to determine its origins and how exactly people are getting infected. Within the last week a total of 44 people nation wide have been infected with virus and more than half have died because of it. Most of the patients were from the Middle East, but cases have been found as far as France. The threat this virus imposes is that it has symptoms that are similar to the common cold but can reach to have the symptoms of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) but this virus is nothing like SARS. The Novel coronavirus attacks the respiratory system and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that the symptoms of the coronavirus include; severe fever and cough that lead to pneumonia and kidney failure.

            In Biology were learned about viruses and how exactly they reproduce. We leaned about their life cycles and how the virus infects a cell in five steps, attachment, injection, replication, assembly and release. This article connects directly to the concept we learned in biology because of the fact that we specifically studied viruses and how they manage to reproduce successfully. Considering that the novel coronavirus is a new virus that has emerged it is a great threat towards humanity because almost everything about this new virus is unknown.

            The reason why I chose this article is because in biology I found leaning of viruses interesting and I actually understood how viruses work to significantly hurt the host. This article is relevant to me because its something new of a topic I enjoy learning about and it’s a concept that all of us should pay attentions to.  

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/28/health/france-coronavirus-death/index.html?hpt=he_c1