Lets talk about the those whom this coronavirus can affect the most. This virus is more dangerous for people with weaker immune system such as kids and 65+ age group. Older people have more negative symptoms due to their already existing medical conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and asthma. If we take a look at overall world population then 9.3% of world population is 65+, while in China this percentage is 12%, which is quiet high. So more percentage of old-age people in china might be a reason behind high mortality there. If this is the case, then certainly the mortality will remain lower in other parts of world. China's National Health Commission has recently published a report claiming that 80% of those who died were over 60 years of age and 75% of them were already patients of pre-existing health conditions.
On 23rd January WHO estimated transmission rates of nCoV2019 between 1.4 to 2.5. It means that one infected person can infect around 2.5 people at most. You will be surprised to know that transmission rate of common flu is around 1.3 . So chances of slowdown of spread of this coronavirus is quiet high.
If we talk about mortality then nCoV2019 is claiming lives of 2% of people infected. In previous coronavirus epidemics mortality rates were very high. SARS-CoV had 10% mortality, while MERS-CoV had 37% mortality. But it does not mean that risk is not there, if number of infected people grow more then total death count can also rise, so stopping the further transmission is necessary. China has quarantined a number of cities, public transport is fully stopped and workplaces are closed only to stop the spread. Some countries have even cancelled their flights to China and taking their citizens back and putting them in a quarantined space for safety of their citizens. Additionally some countries have postponed visa facility for Chinese people for their own safety. But in the middle of all this a new type of racism is emerging which may harm Chinese people more than the coronavirus.
Researchers around the world are trying to develop antiviral medicine to fight against novel coronavirus. University of Hong Kong has announced that they have developed a vaccine, but it needs to be tested on animals before mass production for humans. Coronavirus is a RNA virus, rather than a DNA, therefore some western firms are developing mRNA vaccine. United States NIH is hoping for human-trials of a new vaccine by April 2020. Norwegian Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is funding three different projects to develop vaccine against coronavirus and expects human-trials by June 2020.
Apart from SARS, MERS and nCoV there are 4 more human-coronaviruses named 229E, NL63, OC43 and HKU1. These human coronaviruses are responsible for causing common cold symptoms and humans are natural host of these coronaviruses. The better part about these viruses is that there is no anti-viral medicine to treat them. Our immune system treats our body itself and within a few days the symptoms are gone. Here we are trying to tell you that the treatment of most of the viral infections is naturally residing inside our body, i.e. our immune system. The better our immune system works the lesser we are going to suffer from coronavirus.
Here we told you about mortality rate and transmission rate of novel-coronavirus which shows that it is not as dangerous as expected by some media reports. Only people with lower immunity and pre-existing medical conditions should worry about it. Here a better thing to do is to do something to improve your immunity. Immunity can be improved through a good diet plan and regular exercise or yoga. Don't be fearful, just improve your immunity, as it is the best natural weapon that can protect you from coronavirus.
