CORONAVIRUS: HOW DOES IT AFFECT YOUR BODY?

Coronavirus has claimed around 4,706 lives in India as of today. How exactly does coronavirus infect the body and why has it suddenly become such a great threat?

Well, let's begin by saying that coronavirus causes respiratory infections which means that most of the trouble lies in the fact that it affects the lungs and airways.

We all know that the main symptoms of coronavirus infection to be cough, fever, and trouble in breathing. However, roughly around 3.4 percent (as mentioned by The Daily Mail) of the COVID positive patient's condition gets critical serious when they not treated properly/on time because the mild breathing problems tend to turn into pneumonia, which in medical terms means an illness where the alveoli/air sacs of one or both lungs become filled with fluid or pus leading to difficulty in breathing. 

Among the different kinds of cells in our body, coronavirus mostly affects the goblet cells and ciliated cells. The main purpose of the goblet cells in the respiratory tract is to produce mucus that helps in trapping dirt, bacteria, and other unwanted substances. The ciliated cells, on the other hand, have tiny hair-like projections that help in expelling out the dust and other solid particles that are not supposed to enter the respiratory system. 

The virus affects these cells and starts killing them to support their own multiplication inside the body. 

But if the mucus can trap unwanted bodies in it then how does the virus get past it?

Coronavirus is hardly 120 nm in diameter so it's extremely tiny. It is made up of a capsid or a protein shell that is lined on the outside by glycoprotein spikes which gives the virus a spiked or crown-like appearance, hence the name, coronavirus. This capsid layer holds/ encapsulates the viral genome which is a single-stranded positive-sense RNA (Ribonucleic acid). For all the biology muggles reading this, let me put it this way: Humans have DNA ( double-stranded) as their genetic material while viruses have RNA (single-stranded) as their genetic material. 

The virus binds with the cells of the human respiratory system using a receptor. The binding of the virus fools the cells of the body to believe that the virus is not dangerous and is a part of the body itself. This way the virus is capable of making its way past the body's defenses. It then discharges its genetic material into the cytoplasm of the cell. 

Once inside the cell cytoplasm, the viral RNA takes over the cell and uses the cell's 'DNA replicating machinery' to produce more and more viral RNA thus, turning the cells into a virus replicating factory. 

The virus multiplies inside the cells to produce a huge number of new viruses. The pressure of viral creation ultimately puts the cells in a state of apoptosis or programmed cell death. The cells burst and the viral particles spread out to infect other cells of the respiratory system in the same manner. 

As the virus keeps killing the cells as a part of their replication process, the tissues start collapsing and falling into the lungs to create blockages. It is this blockage that leads to the development of pneumonia in the patients. The blockages (consisting of dead tissues) clog different parts of the lungs and as a reaction, the lungs tend to swell up, producing fluids that cause difficulty in breathing. 

Another way things can get worse is when the body realizes that something is wrong and the immune system generates an Auto-immune reaction to prevent the spreading of the virus inside the body. This means that the immune system starts killing cells of the body that are close to the infected cells in an attempt to prevent the spreading of the virus. The body becomes hyperimmune but unfortunately, the damage by the virus is irreversible and numerous viral copies have already been made that can travel to healthy cells easily.

As the infection progresses, the functions of other internal organs like the liver and kidney may also begin to deteriorate. This may be more like a side effect of the virus. Since the lungs do not function properly, the other organs may be starved of oxygen that they need to function properly thus, leading to organ failure. 

Now, let's understand why the medical authorities and government has been pleading us to take the same measures (social distancing, self- isolation, and sanitization) since the very start of this pandemic:

Since the virus resides and replicates in the respiratory tract, droplets carrying the virus from coughing, sneezing, or even by talking of an infected person may be expelled out into the air. The droplets can travel up to 7 ft distance which is why the main way to keep yourself protected is by practicing social distancing at all times.

The second risk lies in the fact that infected people can easily contaminate their surroundings by touching with infected hands. When you touch these contaminated surfaces like doorknobs, taps, etc, you get contaminated. This is mainly because viruses are neither dead nor alive outside the body of living beings. Viruses are opportunist organisms. The moment they find a medium (living beings) that facilitates their survival, they take over the system. Thus, coronavirus can live on surfaces for several days. 

The virus can easily be killed by disinfectants such as alcohol or bleach. This is why it is recommended to disinfect your hands and surroundings with alcohol-based products (A good alcohol-based product tends to be more watery and not in the form of gel!)

So now that I have created a sense of positive fear in your mind, you would not want to fall prey to this painful biological process that I tried to meticulously explain above. Protect yourself as well as others because every life is valuable. 

Stay tuned for the next blog where I will be talking about the miracle drug Hydroxychloroquine and other ways to strengthen your immune system to fight coronavirus. 

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COVID-19: AAROGYA SETU APP- HOW DOES IT WORK?

HISTORY OF PANDEMICS AND EPIDEMICS

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 COVID-19: AAROGYA SETU APP - HOW DOES IT WORK?

During COVID-19, Aarogya setu app has proved to be the support system for all Indians. This application was developed and released by the National Informatics Centre in April 2020. 

The name of this app was carefully coined to give out the meaning: ‘The bridge for liberation from disease’. To break it down into simpler words, Aa stands for ‘without’, rogya stands for ‘disease’ and setu stands for ‘bridge’ in the Hindi vernacular. 

                      

What citizens need to know is the mechanism that this application follows to make them safe from coming face to face with any situation that may subject them to COVID-19. Aarogya setu uses the premise of Geo-tagging, syndromic mapping, self-assessment, and Contact tracing to make the user aware of their closeness to the COVID-19 ‘hot-spots’ or to a person who may potentially carry the disease. By doing so, the application can assist the user to embrace precautionary measures and promote their safety in regions where there are known COVID-19 positive citizens, thus, helping them stop the transmission of disease to a certain degree. 

The application also enables users to self-screen/ evaluate themselves in cases where the situation of the user is such that they are not able to step out and visit health-care facilities. Aarogya Setu application additionally assists individuals by helping them distinguish the side effects, alert them about the best well-being safety measures, and also gives them pertinent data concerning the spread of COVID-19.

When you download the Aarogya Setu application, you register with your telephone number and include personal details like your age and sexual orientation, etc. This information helps you to go through a self-evaluation for your well-being. The chat-bot keeps you informed regarding the latest news from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and related helplines.

 For the app to track your activities, it is of prime importance that you keep your GPS area sharing and Bluetooth consistently on. GPS tracks your location, while a Bluetooth trade happens between proximal gadgets that have been registered and have an active account on Aarogya Setu. 

                   

The application utilizes your Geo-location and the administration database to decide if you are within six feet of an infected individual, or whether you are in a territory assigned as a COVID-19 hot-spot. The application will warn you about physical vicinity to possible infected individuals or risk-prone zones, scale your danger of disease depending upon your contact with surroundings, and give relevant recommendations to avoid the disease. In the unfortunate event that you test positive for COVID-19 or are in danger since you've been in close contact with an infected individual, your information and the details of everybody you've come into contact with in recent days are sent to the cloud which can then be accessed by the government. 

Your area history is intended to be erased from the application and cloud following a 30-day cycle. 

The information from the application allows the government to generate statistical visualization of the whereabouts of the user. The government may also share this information with nearby health care clinics so that necessary action can be taken on time. 

It has been declared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the application could adequately be used as an e-pass for traveling as the transportation facilities are being made available to the public slowly. The purpose is that you might be permitted to travel just if you have the application installed on your phone. This application will act as an additional layer of screening for the citizens during these unprecedented times. 

                          

This application is an absolute necessity in India during the COVID-19 pandemic. Aarogya setu app saw a massive amount of downloads in just a few days. Everyone should do their bit and download this app to help safeguard themselves as well as the citizens around them from getting infected.

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CORONAVIRUS OVER THE WORLD

THE HISTORY OF PANDEMICS AND EPIDEMICS

CONTEXT: This article has been written in light of COVID-19 Pandemic to admire the world of micro-organisms. I bow down to the true gods of the Earth. 

Humans are guests on this planet. We think we rule this world just because we have intelligence and abilities like no other living being. However, the world always belonged to micro-organisms and we are immature to think otherwise. 

If we take a closer look at the life on Earth we would notice that Bacteria evolved about 3.5 billion years ago and viruses evolved about 1.5 billion years ago. So what about humans? Well, Homo sapiens have been walking this land for merely 130,000 years. This shows that humans today are merely products of micro-organisms. Now and then we tend to forget about this fact and whenever humans try to establish their power in the world, these micro-organisms take the matter to their hands and make sure to remind us of our real position. It’s fascinating to see how things we can’t even see can turn the whole world upside down. Every pandemic and epidemic is our reckoning.

Before we start, let’s understand the difference between Pandemic vs Epidemic:

EPIDEMIC is when a disease affects a large number of people or animals.

PANDEMIC is an epidemic that’s spread over multiple countries and continents.

Extra info: PLAGUE is a disease caused by the resistant strains of Yersinia pestis.

Since the 1700s a pattern has been observed where there is a massive epidemic that occurs every 100 years, wiping out populations without any efforts. Sometimes these epidemics turn into pandemics.

THE GREAT PLAGUE OF MARSEILLE, 1720: 

Location- France 

Causative agent- Yersinia pestis

Began with the arrival of a merchant ship called ‘THE GRAND SAINT ANTOINE’ from Lebanon at the French port city of Marseille that carried infected passengers from the Middle East. The disease spread upon unloading the cargo containing rat fleas that acted as carriers for this disease. Needless to say, the infection spread across the city like wildfire and killed about 75,000 to 100,000 people hence, turning it into an epidemic disease. 

CHOLERA, 1820:

Location- India

Causative agent- Vibrio cholera

Began in Calcutta from contaminated rice. Flies acted as carriers of the disease. Due to lack of proper toilets infected people, completely oblivious to their diseased state, would defecate in open areas and near water bodies. The pathogens would then spread through water or through flies that landed on food after feasting on the feces of infected people. The disease rapidly spread throughout South East Asia, Middle East, Eastern Africa, and the Mediterranean coast. Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines were hit the hardest by this pandemic, killing around 100,000 people in the Java island of Indonesia alone. 

SPANISH FLU, 1920:

Location- France

Causative agent- H1N1 type of influenza virus

Originated in an overcrowded hospital camp which was the perfect location for the spread of a respiratory virus. This virus passed through several precursors like birds and pigs where they got mutated into highly infectious pathogens before migrating to humans. This epidemic saw a death toll between 50-100 million. Because of which it was quoted to be one of the ‘deadliest epidemics’ in human history. (Not anymore! Pretty sure Corona will snatch the spotlight away from Spanish flu soon.)

CORONA VIRUS, 2020:

Location- China

Causative agent- SARS-CoV-2

We know all about Coronavirus Pandemic. The death toll has reached 333K worldwide as of today. We also know that there was a prediction made on the emergence of such a virus in an old novel. I present to you the exact words of the Novel ‘The Eyes of Darkness’ by Dean Koontz, published in February 1981:

“.……China’s most important and dangerous new biological weapon in a decade. They call the stuff ‘Wuhan-400’ because it was developed at their RDNA labs outside the city of Wuhan, and it was the four-hundredth viable strain of man-made microorganisms created at that research center. 

Wuhan 400 is a perfect weapon. It afflicts only human beings. No other living creature can carry it……”
(Now don't get me wrong, I am in no way indicating that this controversy of covid-19 being a man-made virus is true) 

Every pandemic and epidemic that this world had faced was worse than the ones experienced before. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. As time passes, humans exploit the earth, destroying it a little more with every passing year. And every century, we are thrown down by Mother Earth who, in her indirect ways, tries to warn us that Earth doesn’t need us as much as we need her. 

Facts never lie and the fact is that humans are a mere waste of mass. We can never rule this land. We are under the control of living beings that are much simpler to us and yet have the ability to destroy us in seconds.

On this note, stay safe and stay home. 

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LABORS AND LOCKDOWN

Without labor, nothing prospers. Without laborers, the country will not prosper.

“aapko corona se maut hone ki chinta nahi hai?’ ( Are you not scared of dying because of Corona?)

“ Nahi saahab, yaha khaane ke liye bhi kuch nahi hai. Isse acha toh aise hi chale jaye’ (No sir, we don’t have anything to eat. It would be better to die that way)

This painful statement was spoken by a man who has been working as daily wage labor for his whole life. This common labor man sacrificed his life for us and our country. But what does the country give him in return?

Lockdown has been difficult for all of us but while we are at home spending quality time with our family, there are hundreds and thousands of people out there on the roads trying to figure out a way to reach home. To them, even a single glass of water seems like a luxury.

                               

Day and nights spent as labor, tending to all the unseen and unnoticed needs of our country. We asked for them and they were there when we wanted to build our homes, clean the drains, grow the crops. Where is the whole country when every single labor in this country is crying out for help?  Struggling to keep up with the changing world and new rules, these laborers and daily wage workers are facing problems that are frightening to the core. It pains to see how they are walking on a tight rope of survival to keep themselves and their children alive. Their only wish is to reach home.

24 March 2020 saw the implementation of lockdown in India. Every single human being was requested to stay where they were. The government promised to provide relief in terms of food and money to families with limited income and to those who were stranded on the roads. This was a good measure by the government but unfortunately, they could not reach everyone.

The government tried to reach as many people as possible but the media was able to show us the government’s neglect towards the status of these workers. Several workers reported to the media that they were stranded for two whole months without any support from the government in terms of food and. Broke and desperate, the workers had only one request: ‘Help us reach home so we could be with our family’. They saw that all their requests were denied. Being stuck in a desperate loop of misery, they all decided to set off on foot.

One tragedy after another kept falling on them. The one that stirred everyone’s soul was when 16 workers were crushed under a train carrying goods around 5:22 am at Aurangabad on 8 May 2020 when they were fast asleep on the railway tracks assuming that all train routed had been suspended.

                  

After requesting for the umpteenth time government finally showered some good news and informed that special travel services will be made available to the migrant workers to help them reach home. (Thank you dear government!!)

But uh oh! Is it as easy as it sounds? Of course not! So there were some loopholes here:

1) The government set up helplines for the migration laborers. It later came into light that these helpline numbers were not functioning and the calls made by the workers were never really answered even after multiple attempts. What might be the reason? No one knows!

2) The formalities for the clearance of application for migration is beyond complicated.

Almost all states have opened up online portals where citizens can register for migration to a different state in case they are stranded. But the problem lies in the fact that these laborers are uneducated and do not understand how to use online platforms to ask for help. A majority of them do not have a phone that supports the internet.

Let’s look at the procedure these workers have to go through before getting a travel clearance:

i. Application letter containing details of all members who will be traveling has to be submitted along with the medical certificate proving that the workers are not showing any symptoms of the Coronavirus.

ii. This letter needs to be submitted to the police after which the police will issue a token to the workers and will submit their documents to the Nodal office.

iii. These documents are forwarded by the Nodal officer to the local government of the state where the workers need to travel.

iv. After verification, the documents are sent back to the Nodal office.

v. The Nodal officer informs the railways about the passengers.

vi. Railway issues tickets to the passengers.

After going through all this hassle, a few citizens who were able to clear every obstacle thrown to them, including the workers and some students stranded in different states, were finally allowed to get on special trains to help them reach home.

The situation keeps getting worse out there. Maybe the government is trying it’s best but it sure goes without saying that they need to come up with a better system: a system that understands the need of its desperate citizens, a system that is compassionate, a system that understands that the country is nothing without the men and women who dedicate their lives to the daily wage labor work.

(Source: ABP News)

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THE DIARY OF A PLANET

Introduction of “The Diary of a Planet”

An introduction is the first impression and you never get a second chance to make a first impression ~ Will Rogers

Well hello, readers!

Introduction has always been the hardest according to me, because in the next few minutes, as you read my script, I need to convince you to join me in my journey as a blogger.

Let me begin by telling you that I am a girl with big dreams. Everyone has dreams, right? So what’s so special about mine? Well, I’d like to name my dream “the chase of knowledge”. The world is full of learners but how many of them can impart their knowledge to others? My aim is to use the platform called the ‘internet’ to learn wonderful things and teach others the same with all the resources I have.

This being said, it’s time for you guys to have an introduction with the author of this page. HELLO! I’m Rohini, a lot of people know me as RoRo. I’m a Biotechnologist, an artist, a creator, a dreamer, a learner, a teacher. No! Seriously, I am a Teach for India fellow so I’m absolutely, truthfully a teacher. And now I am also a blogger (It’s about time!)

Blogging was something I always wanted to try my hands at but I was too scared to start because I believe I’m not a great writer. My journey in Teach for India has come to a halt, all thanks to Corona Virus. So while I should have been in my training institute preparing and equipping myself for teaching a bunch of students in a government school, I’m here at home with a crappy old laptop and a poor Wi-Fi signal, trying to figure out how to pass my time. But I’m as motivated as I could ever be to start learning a lot of new things and try to grow as a person. There couldn’t have been a better time when for a blogger friend of mine to come along. My introduction to blogging could not have been possible without him. So, this is my first attempt to befriend my fears and reach out to the world.

My title ‘The diary of a planet’ must be stirring up your curiosity. I chose this title to give all my readers an introduction to what exactly will be happening in my blogs. My articles will mainly be based on what’s going on in the world, how do things happen, when do they happen, and why do they happen. 

4 years of engineering taught me a lot of things but 2 of them stuck with me:

1) Never argue with faculty or you won’t pass.

2) Writing research articles most simply because come on! Engineering faculty don’t understand anything unless it belongs to their field of interest.

So I think it's safe for me to say that I will be able to show all the hard work of my biotech research skills here. My blogs will bring to you the facts you need to know about a lot of common questions that come into your mind in the most simple and subtle words.

I will bring to you a platter of assorted current affairs wrapped up beautifully in technicality and tied together with a little bit of pun. It might start off slow, but good things take time so please be patient with me.

So dear readers and learners, if you want to be updated on your G.K., and more importantly, if you want to learn and explore the different aspects of our wonderful world, then this is the place for you. Go ahead! Push the subscribe icon and join me in the journey of knowledge.

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