By Dr. Shima Gyoh
Living things reproduce progeny that are like themselves because the blue print is coded in tiny structures called genes. When they reproduce, the genes are first concentrated in the seeds. When the seeds grow, the blue print produces the command chemicals that cause it to grow exactly like the parent it came from. For simple living things like bacteria, there are few genes, but for complicated ones like sheep and people, the genes are so many that they are strung together in little threadlike structures called chromosomes.
Did I say “grow exactly like the parent…?” Not in all the minute details, because, in the process of reproducing the genes bearing the blue print, they must divide, and changes, we call “mutations” usually occur that will slightly alter blue print, causing the adult it produces to be slightly different from the parent. This happens in all cell growths, and division of genes is not exempted. This means the offspring will not be the exact copy of the parent, and this is why children are never the mathematical summation of their parents, both in body and behaviour. Mind you, if the genetic changes (genotype) are very slight, the effect on the adult (phenotype) will be too small to be noticeable. If they are too gross, the cell will die or grow abnormally, causing malformations. Some changes cause the cell’s growth to escape regulation by the body: they grow abnormally, autonomously, they are what we call cancer.
Viruses are the simplest form of life, and they consist almost entirely of the blue print or genetic command module, but they lack the “factory” or cell body to reproduce themselves. When they infect a cell, they inject this genetic control module into the cell, and the material hi-jacks the chemical factory of the victim’s cells. The victim’s cell therefore begins to reproduce the virus in quantity, and in the process, it dies, only for the baby viruses to break out and infect fresh nearby cells. Viruses have affinity for specific tissues, and Corona viruses have maximum affinity for the cells covering the respiratory system, i.e. the air passages from lose to lungs.
Infected people shoot out thousands of the virus in their breaths. This is why they should wear masks to reduce the force of spray. The mask may not necessarily stop the virus from going through to infect you, but acting as a windbreak, it reduces the chances of the breath of the infected person reaching your face. It is not possible to identify infected people, so everyone must wear masks when there is an outbreak.
For ease of identification, the new Corona virus has been baptised 2019 n-CoV, you can add “Wuhan, China,” it will probably be appreciate you for knowing it well. We remember its two predecessors that visited us recently. In 2003, the world was shaken by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and in 2012, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), both probably more deadly, yet with its being infectious during its incubation period of 1 to 14 days makes it highly dangerous. They are animal viruses which mutation gives them the ability to infect human beings, then acquire the dangerous power to jump from one man to another.
Among the suspected animals, 2019 n-CoV might have come from the snake! Sounds like a conspiracy theory to further tarnish the reputation of this serpent, especially when he is not allowed to defend himself, but he does harbour a virus very similar to the Wuhan visitor. If it is true, he is committing the sin of violating his command of just biting the heels of men.
If you develop a drug to kill the virus, you have the huge problem of a man killing the mosquito that is perching on his scrotum! The virus is inside host cell! However, it is not impossible to devise a way of safely solving the problem in both cases.
Development of a vaccine is better, but that could take two or three years, by which time the disease would have gone round the world and killed thousands. It’s like Ebola in West Africa. The vaccine was developed after the disease had done its worst, but it was useful in the subsequent epidemic in the Congo.
Since there is no cure, prevention is a big deal. The Chinese have been wonderful in this. They have quarantined entire cities, some with populations over ten million: stay at home, shops closed, no public transport, no gathering, no one must come in or leave town. How do families shop for food? Wish I knew, but they are capable of doing that through internet shopping and their highly developed robots. For isolation, they are constructing isolation hospitals of over 1,000 beds within six weeks, and the buildings are not shacks! Wouldn’t we love to have such zeal and ability in Nigeria? Wow!
