Coronaviruses including SARS MERS and the new coronavirus from Wuhan China so in the summer talking about. what Chrono viruses are we're also going to talk about what animals are infected with Crona viruses and animals that act as hosts for coronaviruses, we'll also discuss some of the common signs and symptoms of Crona viruses and we're gonna talk about a brief history of epidemics caused by coronaviruses including SARS MERS and the new coronavirus so coronaviruses are a family of RNA viruses in the order known as need over Ali's coronaviruses are significant viral pathogens in both humans and animals. They can cause significant disease and the word coronavirus so the prefix corona actually comes from the Latin word for crown and it's actually due to or named for the crown-like appearance of the virus. We talk about and we hear about are in the first two classifications alpha and beta coronaviruses are medium-sized viruses that envelope a positive-stranded RNA in the coronaviruses themselves a very large viral RNA genome they have the largest viral RNA genome known. What are some of the hosts and reservoirs of these viruses and what animals are infected by these viruses so coronaviruses infect both birds and mammals, but bats are hosts to the largest number of viral genotypes of coronavirus so they act more as hosts? They don't necessarily become infected with these viruses. They become hosts to many viral genotypes of the Coronavirus so their immune system is able to suppress a lot of these viruses and they simply act as hosts but they can transmit these viruses to other birds and mammals and epidemics from Coronaviruses, generally occur when viruses are transmitted from one species to another and this is because the viruses can acquire or develop mutations in proteins on their envelope to allow them to bind to cells and infect other cells more easily so this is why we see that when viruses can be transmitted from one species to another. They can acquire mutations and acquire new abilities to infect cells of other species so this is why it's important or it's significant when coronavirus gets transmitted from one species to another with regards to humans.Coronaviruses are causes of both respiratory and gastrointestinal tract infections and these human coronaviruses are relatively common causes of illness in humans and it's estimated that coronaviruses account for approximately five to ten percent of all adult upper respiratory tract infections so they can cause a lot of respiratory tract infections anywhere from a common cold to pneumonia and acute respiratory distress. The syndrome is RDS so there's a wide variety of signs and symptoms from coronaviruses. There are several coronaviruses that humans are infected with more often and then there are other ones that cause more significant illnesses and infections and some coronaviruses can even cause GI or gastrointestinal tract infections. Common symptoms of gastrointestinal tract infections with coronaviruses include diarrhea and when mutations occur coronaviruses can be significant causes of the human epidemic. We mentioned before a lot of times these mutations can occur when the virus is transmitted from one species to another or an entirely new coronavirus can be developed through these mutations. We have seen several instances in the recent past where there has been a transmission from one species to another leading to a new virus and a new outbreak of coronavirus. I'm going to talk about some of those recent outbreaks of coronaviruses so the first one is a severe acute respiratory syndrome or serves and this occurred in the years 2002 to 2003 early reports show it in early 2003 but it was likely occurring even before that in 2002. It seems to have started in Guangdong Province of China, it is itself a beta coronavirus and it is said to be in the lineage be beta coronavirus so there are different lineages within the beta Crona virus category and SARS is in lineage B. What seems to have occurred is that this particular coronavirus SARS was transmitted from bats to civets to humans so from bats to civets and all the way to humans. This led to a worldwide outbreak the outbreak was recorded as early as February 2003 it seemed to have lasted until July of 2003, there were more than 8,000 recorded total cases 774 deaths with a fatality rate of 9.6 percent another Chrono virus outbreak was the Middle East respiratory syndrome or MERS outbreak which occurred in 2012. This started in Saudi Arabia and it quickly spread to several countries it itself is a beta coronavirus as well as what seems to have occurred here is that the virus was transmitted from camels to humans so either through eating camels or exposure to camels or drinking camel milk. More than 2,400 cases of MERS with a recorded 858 associated deaths with a fatality rate of approximately thirty-four point four percent so very high fatality rate with the MERS infection and the newest one that has come on the scene is the 2019 novel coronavirus and it's designated 2019 - n CoV so this one occurred in December of 2019 it's probably even earlier.
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