After analyzing the studies of 72,000 patients infected with COVID-19, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention has just published a report on how SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection usually proceeds.
Scientists have concluded that the novel SARS CoV-2 coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease closely resembles the action of the SARS virus that caused severe acute respiratory syndrome. Both infections, as in the case of influenza, start in the lungs and spread by airborne droplets, i.e. when sneezing, coughing, and talking closely, they are even present in the patient's urine and faeces.
How does the coronavirus enter the body?
Scientists have tried to find out how the coronavirus penetrates into the human body. Until now, it was only known that the virus enters our body through the open mucosa, that is, the eyes, nose and mouth. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin described in Science what it looks like at the molecular level. The viral envelope, in which the S protein is found, plays a key role in the whole process, and it attaches directly to the cells of our body.
Chinese scientists from Westlake University in Hangzhou led by Quiang Zhou went a step further, who showed that the SARS CoV-2 coronavirus envelope is able to bind to receptors present in cells of the respiratory system, which they named ACE 2. Once the virus enters the cell, it releases a fragment of its RNA into the cell. The latter, in turn, reads it and starts making the appropriate proteins that will help build new copies of the virus while keeping the immune system away from them. As the infection progresses, the affected cell produces more proteins on a massive scale to make new copies of the virus. These, in turn, are transported to the outer edges of the cell and spread throughout the body. It is assumed that before a cell dies, it is able to release millions of copies of the virus. They travel to neighboring cells or are removed from the lungs in the form of droplets through which other people become infected.
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Coronavirus - disease stages
According to researchers, a person infected with COVID-19 already multiplies a lot of viruses in the lungs in the early stages of infection,which spread further by airborne droplets. And only when the coronavirus interacts with ACE 2 receptors, it becomes very aggressive and is able to take control over our body.
Importantly, according to scientists' estimates, the sick person infects even2. on dayafter the virus enters the body, with the disease showing symptoms on average about5. on .
After being infected with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the body's immune cells attack the coronavirus. In some cases and for unknown reasons, the coronavirus can overreact the immune system, which can make recovery difficult. On the other hand, if the patient has a weakened immune system (because he is, for example, an oncological patient or has many comorbidities), the immune system loses the fight against the virus.
It is assumed that COVID-19 occurs in essentially three stages:
- Mild symptoms including fever, dry cough and general malaise, and sometimes muscle aches, headaches, diarrhea and runny nose. It is estimated that at this stage the disease ends in nearly 80% of patients. Some are just carriers of the virus and experience it asymptomatically.
- Non-life-threatening pneumonia. Dyspnoea may appear in this phase.
- Severe Pneumonia with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome - develops approximately one week after the onset of symptoms in approximately 20% of patients. It may be necessary to connect the patient to a ventilator at this point.
Our observations so far show thatthe time between the onset of symptoms and full recovery is approximately 20 days , but it is not yet known whether the patient acquires immunity after the first infection.
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