COLD & FLU
Coronavirus: Important Facts & Prevention Tips
UPDATED: July 21, 2020
Symptom Guides > Cold & Flu > Coronavirus: Important Facts & Prevention Tips

by
Dr. Chesney Fowler
Dr. Fowler is an emergency medicine physician and received her MD from George Washington University. She completed her residency in emergency medicine at Christiana Care Health System. In addition to her work at K Health, Dr. Fowler is a practicing emergency medicine physician in Washington, DC.
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Human coronaviruses (HCov) are a group of respiratory viruses that affect both humans and animals. First discovered in the 1960s, the viruses received their name for the spikey protein projections that give the virus particles a crown-like (“corona”) shape. Human coronaviruses primarily affect patients in the fall, winter, and early spring. They’re very contagious, spreading between humans through skin-to-skin contact, contaminated surfaces, and airborne droplets from inadequately covered coughs or sneezes.
There are seven known strains of human coronavirus. Some are found everywhere and often lead to mild illnesses like the common cold. Others, like the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS coronavirus) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS coronavirus), can cause more severe symptoms, developing into acute conditions like pneumonia and bronchitis if they infect a person’s lower respiratory tract.
In late 2019, a novel coronavirus named SARS coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged and began affecting humans in the Hubei Province of China. The virus is highly contagious, meaning that it travels easily from human to human, and causes an illness that we now know as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). According to the World Health Organization, there have been more than 5.5 million confirmed cases of the new coronavirus disease since December 2019, and more than 100,000 patients have died from it in the United States alone.
Though our understanding of this disease is still evolving, global health officials have learned a great deal about the condition since it first emerged. So, what is coronavirus? How is coronavirus spread? How long does coronavirus last? And what do you need to know to keep you and your loved ones safe? In this article, I’ll cover what is known about this fast-developing public health issue, including:
“In December 2019, a new human coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 began developing into an illness called COVID-19 first seen in patients in China.”
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by
Dr. Chesney Fowler
Dr. Fowler is an emergency medicine physician and received her MD from George Washington University. She completed her residency in emergency medicine at Christiana Care Health System. In addition to her work at K Health, Dr. Fowler is a practicing emergency medicine physician in Washington, DC.
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