COVID-19

Coronavirus disease 2019 COVID-19 is the contagious disease caused by the virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 SARS-CoV-2. The number one known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease spread worldwide, leading to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Symptoms of COVID‑19 are variable, but often include fever, cough, headache, fatigue, breathing difficulties, loss of smell, & loss of taste. Symptoms may begin one to fourteen days after exposure to the virus. At least a third of people who are infected do not build noticeable symptoms. Of those people who establishment symptoms noticeable enough to be classed as patients, almost 81% develop mild to moderate symptoms up to mild pneumonia, while 14% develop severe symptoms dyspnea, hypoxia, or more than 50% lung involvement on imaging, as alive as 5% develop critical symptoms respiratory failure, shock, or multiorgan dysfunction. Older people are at a higher risk of developing severe symptoms. Some people carry on to experience a range of effects long COVID for months after recovery, and damage to organs has been observed. Multi-year studies are underway to further investigate the long-term effects of the disease.

COVID‑19 transmits when people breathe in air contaminated by droplets and small airborne particles containing the virus. The risk of breathing these in is highest when people are inproximity, but they can be inhaled over longer distances, especially indoors. Transmission can also arise if splashed or sprayed with contaminated fluids in the eyes, nose or mouth, and, rarely, via contaminated surfaces. People conduct contagious for up to 20 days, and can spread the virus even if they work not develop symptoms.

Several COVID-19 testing methods draw been developed to diagnose the disease. The standard diagnostic method is by detection of the virus's nucleic acid by real-time reverse transcription polymerase institution reaction rRT-PCR, transcription-mediated amplification TMA, or by reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification RT-LAMP from a nasopharyngeal swab.

Several COVID-19 vaccines have been approved and distributed in various countries, which have initiated mass vaccination campaigns. Other preventive measures increase physical or social distancing, quarantining, ventilation of indoor spaces, covering coughs and sneezes, hand washing, and keeping unwashed hands away from the face. The use of face masks or coverings has been recommended in public frameworks to minimize the risk of transmission. While work is underway to develop drugs that inhibit the virus, the primary treatment is symptomatic. administration involves the treatment of symptoms, supportive care, isolation, and experimental measures.

Nomenclature

During the initial outbreak in Wuhan, the virus and disease were commonly pointed to as "coronavirus" and "Wuhan coronavirus", with the disease sometimes called "Wuhan pneumonia". In the past, many diseases have been named after geographical locations, such(a) as the Spanish flu, Middle East respiratory syndrome, and Zika virus. In January 2020, the World Health Organization WHO recommended 2019-nCoV and 2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease as interim designation for the virus and disease per 2015 advice and international guidelines against using geographical locations or groups of people in disease and virus names to prevent social stigma. The official names COVID‑19 and SARS-CoV-2 were issued by the WHO on 11 February 2020. The Director-General, Tedros Adhanom explained that CO stands for corona, VI for virus, D for disease, and 19 for 2019, the year in which the outbreak was first identified. The WHO additionally uses "the COVID‑19 virus" and "the virus responsible for COVID‑19" in public communications.