Coronaviruses
Introduction
- Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses causing illness in animals or humans.
- In human, they cause illness ranging from Common Cold to MERS, SARS & COVID-19.
Morphology
- Enveloped
- Shape: Carrying petal or club shaped or crown like peplomer spikes giving appearance of Solar Corona.
- Size: Large (120-160 nm)
- Symmetry: Helical
- Genome: Linear, positive sense ss RNA (non- segmented genome)
Classification
Human Coronaviruses which cause human infections. There are 7 recognised human coronaviruses:
- Human coronavirus 229E
- Human coronavirus NL63
- Human coronavirus OC43
- Human coronavirus HKU1
- SARS-CoV
- MERS-CoV
- SARS-CoV-2 (Novel coronavirus, 2019-nCoV, Wuhan virus, China virus)
Diseases
- SARS-CoV ⇒ SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)
- MERS-CoV ⇒ MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome)
- SARS-CoV-2 ⇒ Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
