The 2019-nCoV, responsible, according to a report released this Sunday, for 56 dead and nearly 2000 contaminations, may well continue to be talked about, as long as its spread could not be contained. The Parisian looks at the words used to describe it.
Virus
Also called an infectious agent, a virus is a microscopic particle that infects an organism (human, animal, plant, etc.). It can mutate, change shape, during its life. There are several thousand different viruses, which are responsible for diseases, some of which are mild (like the flu) and others can be fatal (rabies, smallpox, yellow fever, etc.)
2019-Ncov
This is the name of this new virus, the epicenter of which was discovered in Wuhan, in central China. "NCov" is used for "new coronavirus.
The researchers believe that the initial contamination is of animal origin, but were soon able to demonstrate that the virus is now transmitted from human to human.
As the French government notes, "in the current state of knowledge, the main symptoms are fever and respiratory signs of the cough or breathlessness type". In more severe cases, the disease can lead to death.
coronavirus
It is a family of viruses, so named because of their crown shape and discovered in 1967. Not all affect humans. But some, like SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), which appeared in China in the 2000s, were first transmitted from animal to human, then from human to human. The latter left 774 dead. Another coronavirus, MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome), which broke out in 2012 in Saudi Arabia, killed 858 people. According to Inserm, the 2019-nCoV is a “close cousin” of Sras.
Pneumonia
2019-nCoV can lead to pneumonia. The symptoms are manifold: fever, cough, breathing difficulties ... This infectious disease can prove fatal in the least resistant patients, who can succumb to an infection of their lungs. Current knowledge of this virus has not made it possible to set up a treatment. Only symptomatic care (reducing pain or fever) can be considered.
Epidemic
We can speak of an epidemic to evoke the spread of 2019-nCoV, since the epidemic is defined by the appearance of a large number of cases of an infectious disease in a region or within a population.
Pandemic
In an article published on The Conversation, Eric D'Ortenzio, epidemiologist and researcher at Inserm, recalls that it is too early to speak of a pandemic. “The cases imported into other countries should spread, and the sick should infect other people. This has not yet happened, ”said the specialist.
The three patients infected in France were infected during a trip to China and were placed in isolation. So far, they have not spread the virus to other people in the country.
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Incubation
The incubation period is that which precedes the appearance of the first symptoms in a person infected with the virus. In the case of 2019-nCoV, "the duration of the incubation seems to be around 7 days but could go up to 14 days", explains the Institut Pasteur.
Transmission
Like other viruses, 2019-nCoV is contagious and is transmitted from human to human, after a probable contamination of animal origin.
If researchers are not yet able to certify its mode of transmission, Public Health France notes that "it is likely that this coronavirus is similar to that of other human coronaviruses, which are generally transmitted during close contact after inhalation of Infectious droplets emitted during sneezing or coughing by the case or after contact with surfaces freshly contaminated with these secretions. "
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Virus reservoir
To spread, the virus must infect an organism, which will therefore host it and can potentially transmit it to another species, animal or human, this is called the reservoir.
In the case of 2019-nCoV, several scientists believe, without yet having formal proof, that bats, reputed to be a virus nest, could have served as a reservoir, before transmitting this coronavirus to another species, which itself even would have transmitted it to the man.
Intermediate host
In the chain of transmission of the virus, the intermediate host is the species which has been contaminated second, before itself transmitting the virus which will have meanwhile mutated.
In the case of SARS, in 2002, the bat had served as a reservoir for the virus, and the civet, a mammal then contaminated (probably because the two species were found side by side in a Chinese market) that of intermediate host, before transmit the virus to humans, probably through consumption.
Quarantine
Several cities in China have been quarantined by the authorities in an attempt to contain the epidemic. This containment measure aims to stop the spread of 2019-nCoV by restricting traffic and telling residents to stay at home. Contaminated people are isolated in hospitals in China, as in Paris and Bordeaux, where three cases have been reported.
