The Coronavirus pandemic has locked down several countries around the world as the death count has crossed above 16,000 including 381,761 positive cases and the numbers are only increasing as the days pass.
China, Italy, Spain and the United States are hard hit among other countries and international travel has been closed down.
How bad does Covid-19 affect your lungs?
Professor John Wilson, President-elect of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and a respiratory physician, revealed to Guardian that Covid-19 resembles serious consequences of pneumonia and stated that it can be placed in four different categories.
He says the least serious of them all is "sub-clinical", who have the virus in them but show little or no symptoms. "Those people with minor symptoms are still able to transmit the virus but may not be aware of it." This is dangerous as the virus can spread to someone with weak immune system and could cost them their life.
The second least serious group are those who get an infection in the upper respiratory tract which "means a person has a fever and a cough and maybe milder symptoms like headache or conjunctivitis" and many of them have successfully recovered from the virus.
The largest group are those who would be positive for Covid-19 and get hospitalized after developing the same flu-like symptoms that would usually keep them off work. This group is given serious care, as the virus attacks their lungs making them have difficulty in breathing normally.
Fourth group of people develops severe illness
The fourth group are those who develop severe illness that resembles pneumonia and are the ones in a matter of life and death situation, as the virus severely damages their lungs. He says, "In Wuhan, it worked out that from those who had tested positive and had sought medical help, roughly six percent had a severe illness."
"The lining of the respiratory tree becomes injured, causing inflammation. This in turn irritates the nerves in the lining of the airway. Just a speck of dust can stimulate a cough. But if this gets worse, it goes past just the lining of the airway and goes to the gas exchange units, which are at the end of the air passages. If they become infected they respond by pouring out inflammatory material into the air sacs that are at the bottom of our lungs," Professor Wilson summed it up.
The World Health Organization revealed that elderly people and people with underlying health problems like high blood pressure, heart ailments, lungs or diabetes are more likely to develop serious illness when contracting Covid-19.
