BY DR. KALU NELLY
Some people call it the end-time disease and believe they are new.
Hmm! What humans don’t understand they become mystified. Empirical evidences shows that Corona Virus has been here from the beginning of time and because we are just getting to know about them doesn’t mean they never existed.
So, please drop your Bibles and Quran for a second! These viruses also seem new because their agents are usually animals or they are mostly transmitted from animals to humans.
There are millions of virus strains ; the ones that have been discovered and the ones that are yet to be.
COVID-19 is novel, therefore scientist have not learnt how it reacts with human hosts therefore we have not developed vaccines and a cure for it.
That makes it a big deal.
You cannot predict what you do not understand. Most virus causing diseases like measles, polio, flu, chicken pox (I bet you did not know they are viral diseases. how old were you when you found out?) that we are used to are already well understood, so we know their mode of transmission and when they cause a disease, we know their Prognosis (outcome).
Outcome can be recovery or death depending on the level of virulence the virus comes with. Apart from that, our immune systems have already learnt how to fight them like the human influenza virus.
Viruses are very different from other disease causing microorganism we know; most times human immune systems have to fight them when they are infected. That means some of them so far are self-limiting like the FLU, while some attack an integral part of your system like the HIV, some can only be contracted when the immune systems are down like Corona virus.
Still, understanding viruses are still in the works because scientists are yet to fully comprehend them all.
Understanding that in normal circumstances, zoonotic viruses found in animals cannot be readily transmitted to humans.
Yes! Only in special circumstances known as “ecological event” can these instances occur.
An “ecological event” can be a Human having an illness like the Flu during which immune systems are down making it easy for the virus to move from animal to human. This process where virus is passed from animal to human is known as Zoonosis.
In recent times, the occurrences of “ecological events” leading to the transmission of viruses from animal to human have become more frequent.
The discussion on Viruses is vast but we have to understand that most viruses are self-limiting and cannot withstand a strong immune system.
Therefore the stronger your immune system the better chances of surviving them.
Dr Kalu Nelly [OD] is an optometrist with over 10 years’ experience in the field of eye health. A social commentator and a health blogger. She writes from Abuja.
