This is the season of flu in Nepal. In the same period the new corona virus outbreak has made headlines in recent weeks globally. Is this virus similar with that common flu? May not be! How worrisome is it and why is it spreading so rapidly?
The 2019 AD year passed a very terrifying disease to the year 2020 AD. A new virus called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrom Coronavirus2 (SARS-CoV-2), also popularly called as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has been identified as the cause of a disease outbreak that was started from Wuhan of China in 2019. This new coronavirus appears to spread from person to person among those in close contact. It spreads by respiratory droplets when someone infected with the virus coughs or sneezes. It's unclear exactly how contagious the virus is.
Who are vulnerable?
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), younger people are also getting affected from COVID-19. Nearly 30% of confirmed US corona virus cases have been among people between 20–44, according to the CDC. Though status of different countries revealed that older age groups are more vulnerable from COVID-19 compared to others, the recent numbers show lots of younger people are also getting sick as well.
In March 16, 2020, 4,226 cases of COVID-19 were reported in US to the CDC. CDC analyzed by affected age group from 2,449 patients admitted to the hospital. The result revealed the scenario similar to those of other countries like in Italy and China, CVOID-19 is having the most severe impact on elder age group. Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention data also revealed that 80% of all deaths occurred among the people of aged 60 and above.The death rate of COVID-19 disease, according to WHO, is approximately 3.4%. But it depends on the topography, climate, social and personal behavior, and age factor. Death rate of Italy is higher as compared to the main land of disease, China because one of the reason was due to high number of elder group. Though average death rate of COVID-19 is 3.4%, Americans aged between 75 and 84, the case fatality rate is 4.3% while ICU admissions and hospitalizations stand at 6.3% and 30.5% respectively.
The death rate of COVID-19 is higher from seasonal flu. Seasonal flu death rate in U.S. is typically 0.1. So far, the new corona virus has led to more than 287,456 illnesses and more than 11,897 deaths worldwide. But that's nothing compared with the common flu, also called influenza. The WHO estimates that seasonal flu kills 291,000 to 646,000 people worldwide each year, according to a new estimate that's higher than the previous one of 250,000 to 500,000 deaths a year. The researchers have studied seasonal flu for decades and is well known disease for all. If preventive measures are followed, disease can be controlled. The study found that the risk of flu-related death was highest in the poorest regions of the world and among older adults. That might be the reason why it is not making headlines. In contrast, very little is known about the new coronavirus and the disease it causes, dubbed COVID-19, because it's so new. This means COVID-19 is something of a wild card in terms of how far it will spread and how many deaths it will cause.
