Most of us will be infected with a coronavirus at least once in our life.
There is much more to coronaviruses than SARS-CoV-2.
Coronaviruses are actually a family of hundreds of viruses.
Most of these infected animals such as bats, chickens, camels, and cats.
This is called cross-species transmission or spillover.
The first coronavirus wasdiscovered in chickensin the 1930s.
It was a few decades until thefirst human coronaviruses were identifiedin the 1960s.
To date, seven coronaviruses have the ability to cause disease in humans.
The first coronaviruses discovered that are able to infect humans are 229E and OC43.
Both of these viruses usually result in the common cold and rarely cause severe disease on their own.
They are often detected at the same time as other respiratory infections.
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This virus has probably been around for hundreds of years, we just hadnt found it until then.
It was later named HKU1 and has been found to be presentin populations around the world.
Deadlier strains
But not all coronaviruses cause a mild disease.
Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) caused bySARS-CoV was first detected in November 2002.
Sars bears many similarities to the current pandemic of COVID-19.
But there was a much greater chance of dying if you had Sars.
From 2002 until the last reported case in 2014,774 people died.
A decade later, in 2012, there was another outbreak involving a newly identified coronavirus: MERS-CoV.
The first case of Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers)occurred in Saudi Arabia.
There were two further Mers outbreaks:South Korea in 2015andSaudi Arabia in 2018.
There are a handful of Mers cases every year, but the outbreaks are usually well contained.
So why did Sars or Mers not result in pandemics?
The symptoms of Sars were more severe, so it was much easier to identify and isolate patients.
The R0 ofMers is below one.
It is not very contagious.
So like, stay at home.
