What became known as Covid-19, or the coronavirus, started in late 2019 and early 2020 in the Chinese city of Wuhan as a cluster of pneumonia cases with an unknown cause.
The cause of the pneumonia was found to be a new virus – severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or Sars-CoV-2. The illness caused by the virus is Covid-19.
Now declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the majority of people who contract Covid-19 suffer only mild, cold-like symptoms.
WHO says about 80% of people with Covid-19 recover without needing any specialist treatment. Only about one person in six becomes seriously ill “and develops difficulty breathing”.
So how can Covid-19 develop into a more serious illness featuring pneumonia, and what does that do to our lungs and the rest of our body?
How is the virus affecting people?
Guardian Australia spoke with Prof John Wilson, president-elect of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and a respiratory physician.
He says almost all serious consequences of Covid-19 feature pneumonia.
Wilson says people who catch Covid-19 can be placed into four broad categories.
The least serious are those people who are “sub-clinical” and who have the virus but have no symptoms.
Next are those who get an infection in the upper respiratory tract, which, Wilson says, “means a person has a fever and a cough and maybe milder symptoms like headache or conjunctivitis”.
He says: “Those people with minor symptoms are still able to transmit the virus but may not be aware of it.”
The largest group of those who would be positive for Covid-19, and the people most likely to present to hospitals and surgeries, are those who develop the same flu-like symptoms that would usually keep them off work.
A fourth group, Wilson says, will develop severe illness that features pneumonia.
He says: “In Wuhan, it worked out that from those who had tested positive and had sought medical help, roughly 6% had a severe illness.”
The WHO says the elderly and people with underlying problems like high blood pressure, heart and lung problems or diabetes, are more likely to develop serious illness.
Read the full article:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/13/coronavirus-what-happens-to-peoples-lungs-when-they-get-covid-19
