Health Alert: Coronavirus can Stay Infectious on Objects & Surfaces for Nine Days

Coronavirus, the deadly virus has taken many lives in no time. These viruses are a large family of viruses that causes sickness from cold to more deadly diseases such as Middle Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) transmitted from dromedary camels to humans, which include fever, cough and shortness of breath and some more symptoms that have been reported include pneumonia, gastrointestinal symptoms, diarrhoea and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV) is said to be an animal virus by an uncertain animal reservoir, perhaps bats, that spread to civet cats and then transmitted to humans. The symptoms that surround SARS are fever, malaise, myalgia, headache, diarrhoea, and shivering (rigours). Coronavirus are zoonotic which means they are transmitted through animals and humans.

A professor from the Institute of Hygiene and Environmental Medicine at the Greifswald University Hospital in Germany told that low temperature and high air humidity further increase the lifespan of the virus. The Head of the Department for Molecular and Medical Virology at Ruhr-Universitat Bochum (RUB) in Germany also told that different coronaviruses were analyzed and the results were all similar.

Transmission of virus

Novel coronavirus has no certain or specific therapy against it but it is spread through air droplets and also it can spread through the various surface which are frequently touched.  If we talk about hospitals, several things are touched by different patients and who know how infected the patient was, so avoid touching anything without wearing gloves as it is said the virus can stay on the surfaces up to nine days. Not only in hospitals but studies have shown that the virus can live on surfaces such as glass, plastic or metal, for up to nine days. It is advised to not touch your eyes, mouth, nose after touching a surface as there are possibilities of virus being transmitted directly to you.

Experts have put out some standard recommendations regarding precautions to avoid catching the virus such as washing of hands regularly, covering the face while coughing and sneezing, using a good mask, avoiding contact with anyone who shows symptoms of respiratory illness, use of a mask to cover your mouth is recommended as well.

After various tests on how to disinfect the coronavirus, turned out that the agents based on ethanol, hydrogen peroxide or sodium hypochlorite are effective against coronaviruses. The use of such these agents if done in proper concentration may reduce the infection.

If we talk about how many people have been affected by a coronavirus, the number has reached up to 42,000 globally, declared by WHO. The current outbreak of novel coronavirus has taken so many lives around the world, experts are working on finding a cure for the same.

One major thing that is vital to fight coronavirus is boosting your immunity, your immune system should be build up in a way to fight the virus as a weak immune system leads to getting virus very easily. In general, as well, a weak immunity system will catch infections easily because the body has no energy to fight them.

Over to you

Most importantly your immune system should be strong enough to fight any infections, have a rich diet and exercise enough. A good diet includes fruits, veggies in abundance due to presence of antioxidants. If you find yourself suffering from cough or fever, medical help should be taken as soon as possible. Gloves and masks should be your companions to avoid catching the viruses!