All you need to know about Coronavirus: Origin, discovery, carriers, what can it do to humans, WHO says...

Coronavirus has hit India once again. It is spreading across the country rapidly with the number of people getting infected reaching 6,815, as of Tuesday, including 324 fresh cases. Three new COVID-19-related deaths were reported in the last 24 hours in Delhi, Kerala and Jharkhand. The World Health Organisation has classified the new strain of viruses as "Variants Under Monitoring" and termed it not of concern yet, but requiring caution. 

Who discovered Coronavirus?

Coronaviruses are a group of RNA viruses that infect mammals and birds and respiratory tract infections, ranging from mild to lethal. Coronavirus emerged in Latin America for the first time in the 1920s as an acute respiratory infection of domesticated chickens. Arthur Schalk and M.C. Hawn made the first detailed report on Coronavirus in 1931. E.C. Kendall, Malcolm Bynoe, and David Tyrrell of the Common Cold Unit of the British Medical Research Council were the first scientists to collect a unique common cold virus called B814 in 1961. Dorothy Hamre and John Procknow at the University of Chicago, in the US,  isolated a novel cold from medical students in 1962. 

How old is Coronavirus

The coronavirus is not new to human civilisation. According to scientists, coronaviruses are believed to have existed as early as 8,000 BC. Some believe that they existed as far back as 55 million years or more. The ancestors of alphacoronavirus existed about 2400 BC, those of the betacoronavirus came 3300 BC, and the ancestors of of the gammacoronavirus lived as early as 2800 BC. The ancestors of the deltacoronavirus came about 3000 BC. 

Reservoir for coronavirus gene pool

Warm-blooded flying vertebrates like birds and bats are the ideal natural reservoir for the coronavirus gene pool. While bats are the reservoir for alphacoronaviruses and betacoronavirus, birds are the reservoir for gammacoronaviruses and deltacoronaviruses. 

The Coronaviruses infecting the human being have their origin in bats. The human coronavirus NL63 shared a common ancestor with a bat coronavirus, ARCoV.2 between 1190 and 1449 CE. Similarly, another human coronavirus 229E shared a common ancestor with a bat coronavirus GhanaGrp1 Bt CoV between 1686 and 1800 CE.

What can Coronavirus do?

Coronaviruses can cause pneumonia and bronchitis in human bodies.  Discovered in 2003, human coronavirus SARS-CoV, causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). It has a unique pathogenesis as it infects both upper and lower respiratory tracts. Some other Coronavirus like MERS-CoV can kill more than 30% of those infected, while some others are relatively harmless. Scientists have found six species of human coronaviruses, with one species subdivided into two different strains, making seven strains of human coronaviruses. 

World Health Organisation is working with the 10 Member States in South East Asia to address persisting and emerging epidemiological and demographic challenges. It has said that there is no need to treat COVID-19 as a separate health threat, rather it should be managed like other ongoing health threats.