The coronavirus pandemic has changed the world, with only several months of spread leading to an excess of 12 million confirmed cases on Wednesday, with global health experts fearing millions of other undocumented cases circulating throughout the world. The nature of this disease has baffled all that study it, for it leaves a wide swath of symptoms across various populations of the infected. The only this that is for certain is that the coronavirus pandemic should not be taken lightly as its unyielding spread continues.
Looking back over the course of the pandemic, many of the hard-hit epicenters of Europe have begun to move further from their brush with the first wave, with only a few minor containment errors occurring. Places like South Korea, Germany, China, and now Australia have had to reinstate lockdowns on portions of their populations to stave off another course of total shutdown due to a resurgence in infections. Currently, the virus has dominated the western hemisphere, bringing nations like Brazil and the United States to millions of cases and thousands of deaths. The United States on Tuesday became the first country to cross 3 million confirmed cases, with the highly populous nation accounting for a quarter of both infections and deaths. Alarmingly, the pandemic shows no signs of yielding, with the spread taking only five weeks to double from 6 million to 12 million.
Total Global Cases: Over 12.1 Million
Deaths: Over 551,000
Recovered: Over 7 Million
Questioning the Future
There are still many unknowns when it comes to SARS-CoV-2, or the coronavirus. Scientists from University College London (U.C.L.)published a study in the medical journal brain on Wednesday, highlighting on the possible neurological complications that can arise following infection. Researchers in the study described 43 cases of coronavirus patients who later suffered temporary brain dysfunction, inflammation, stoke, nerve damage, or other serious effects that may be linked to coronavirus exposure.
"Whether we will see an epidemic on a large scale of brain damage linking to the pandemic--perhaps similar to the encephalitis lethargica outbreak in the 1920s and 1930s after the 1918 influenza pandemic --remains to be seen," said Michael Zandi of U.C.L'.s Institute of Neurology and co-lead of the study, quoted by Reuters.
While the coronavirus pandemic mostly revolves around the respiratory illness associated with the disease, many researchers have linked infection with blood disorders and other conditions that are not necessarily associated with the lungs. Nine patients in the U.C.L. study who had developed brain inflammation were later diagnosed with a rare condition called acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), which can be triggered by viral infections.
"Given that the disease has only been around for a matter of months, we might not yet know hat long-term damage COVDI-19 can cause," Ross Paterson, co-led of the U.C.L study, quoted by Reuters.
Understanding the Present
An analysis of over 17 million coronavirus patients linked to nearly 11,000 deaths in England, published on Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature, set out to determine the risk factors that lead to an individuals chance of succumbing to COVID-19. The study linked older age, being male, having health conditions like diabetes and severe asthma, and having of Black or South Asian decent as raise the patients chances of fatal infection.
The study is on going, hoping to shed light on all COVID-19 risk factors to bring better understanding of the fatal virus.
