CAREFUL WHAT YOU TOUCH

A new study has indicated how long the COVID-19 remains active circulating in the air and on surfaces.  Take time to read this and be wise with what you touch. 

Your best defence

• ·        If you are unwell or in a high-risk group, stay home. 
• ·        If you go out, be careful what you touch (see below).
• ·        Wash your hands correctly, every chance you get with soap and water for at least long enough to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice (to yourself, of course).
• ·        Avoid using an air-hand-dryer (and try to be out of a restroom if someone is using one to dry their hands).
• ·        Resist touching your face, rubbing your eyes or touching your lips!

This Virus Lives Too Long

This virus seems to have a long life and someone who is infected may spread the disease without feeling sick for, what is thought to be at least 14 days before symptoms appear. 

When someone who is infected with COVID-19, for example, coughs or sneezes openly or into the air or into their hand, droplets carrying the virus will begin to circulate in the air (up to two meters). 

NOTE:  Best way to thwart a surprise sneeze or cough is to always have a fresh tissue or paper towel with you and if you don’t sneeze or cough into your elbow.  Be sure to cover your mouth carefully.  With a tissue or paper towel, fold it so the potentially contaminated surface is inside and throw it in a waste bin.

If the person tries to use their hand to ‘catch’ the cough or sneeze, anything they touch afterwards (until they properly wash their hands), can infect others. 

Common Ways It Spreads

Here are common ways the virus can pose an invisible threat to others from circulating in the area or lurking on surfaces:

• ·        After an open, careless cough or sneeze
• ·        From someone touching surfaces with ‘dirty’ hands
• ·        From being in a space where someone is using an air-hand-dryer
• ·        When someone flushes the toilet, the virus circulates in those droplets that are splashed up

Longevity of COVID-19 in the Air / on Surfaces

Research, published in the ‘medRxiv’ depository has now conformed length of time the virus can live outside a person and infect others:

• Circulating in the air for up to three hours
• On surfaces such as plastic and stainless steel for up to three days.

The length of life differs with what the virus lands on, such as:

• ·        Coper surfaces - up to four hours
• ·        Cardboard  - up to 24 hours
• ·        Stainless steel and plastic  - between two to three days

Another study published in February estimated that if COVID-19 behaves in a similar way as other coronaviruses (such as SARS or MERS), it could live on metal, glass and plastic surfaces for up to nine days

NOTE:  To compare this to the common, seasonal flu, the flu virus can live on surfaces for only about 48 hours.

Why is COVID-19 so Serious?

Key Points

• 1.   Covid-19 virus displays subtle to no symptoms. 
• 2.   It is proving difficult to self-recognise and for health-providers to diagnose (see point 6).
• 3.   Because infected individuals show/feel no apparent dangerous symptoms or feel unwell, the virus is spreading wider and more rapidly than other viruses. 
• 4.   When an individual is asymptomatic they are unmotivated and take no or little self-precaution to protect others.
• 5.   Globally there is no agreed way to manage a pandemic. 
• 6.   In many countries there is a lack of education, infrastructure and medical supplies and equipment, the response is uncoordinated or politicised.  This results in yet more individuals being infected.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTWZXWkz25c

5 Reasons COVID-19 may soon spiral out of control

COVID-19 is a Corona Virus.  Corona Virus is a family of common viruses that typically result in the seasonal flu.  However, the COVID-19 virus is an organism that has mutated and 'jumped' from infecting animals (who may never have shown symptoms) to humans - this is called a zoonotic virus.  

Soldier On

Unlike the common flu, this virus comes with the ‘hidden danger” of spreading widely during a long and unsymptomatic incubation period – meaning many more people are exposed to the virus who do not feel ill.  

The virus has now spread to 60 nations around the globe.

Our familiarity with ‘just having a cold or the flu’ combined with our drive (or need) to soldier on, is especially apparent in developed countries.  Individuals who feel 'relatively fine’ go freely into the public and go to work or indulge in group activities -- all while they are infectious (able to spread the virus).

Longer ‘Shelf Life”

The virus is spreading long after an infected person coughs or sneezes virus-ladened droplets while near others, because of how long it lives once expelled.  

The COVID-19 virus is protected by a particularly hearty sleeve, bubble or barrier that allows it to survive longer on surfaces, within circulating air or through sewage.  

Current estimates believe this virus can survive for more than 14 days outside the body.  (See article in this blog about how the virus has been noted to be spreading). 

COVID-19 also seems able to easily change/adapt to new situations because it replicates RNA, not DNA (which is more stable against change – more on this in another blog article). 

Seven Step Invasion Strategy

For now, here is how the COVID-19 virus acts when it infects an individual:

• 1.   Attachment – the virus enters the body and attaches itself to certain cells.
• 2.   Penetration – it penetrates the cell wall and enters the cell.
• 3.   Uncoating – it ‘melts’ once inside the cell wall and takes up residence in the new host.
• 4.   Biosynthesis – it adapts to the new environment before the body can react and take defensive action.
• 5.   Assembly – it gathers ‘power’ and multiplies itself with the cells.
• 6.   Release – it breaks out of the weakened, host cells to invade other vulnerable cells.
• 7.   Repetition - It starts again in more cells, repeating the previous six steps as it spreads throughout an individual’s body until symptoms begin to show.