Spare Yourself a Cold To Spare Yourself from Coronavirus

What brought this misery upon you?

Animals like camels, civets, and bats originate coronavirus, which is usually not transmissible to humans. But a coronavirus may mutate and pass from animals to humans and then from human to human, as it was seen in the SARS epidemic in the early 2000s. (SARS stands for "severe acute respiratory syndrome.") Most of the first cases in December 2019 were traced to an animal market in the Chinese city of Wuhan. It is believed that the virus had come from contact with live animals that were infected. The market has since been closed.

As of yet, there are 1990 confirmed cases of the virus in China with a death toll of 56.
An OCD like germaphobia? Not such a bad idea!
Most coronaviruses spread in the same way cold-causing viruses do: through the air by infected people coughing and sneezing, by touching an infected person's hands or face, or by touching things that infected people have touched. So, hold your eyes from rolling because your friend who doesn’t let you drink from their bottle is actually life-saving smart!
It’s not ‘just a cold’.
It is difficult to separate the symptoms of a normal cold from those of coronavirus. Symptoms of the virus may include:

• Runny nose
• Headache
• Cough
• Sore throat
• Fever
• A general feeling of being unwell

We can see that these symptoms resemble those of a cold, but in the case of coronavirus, these become potentially lethal
Better safe than sorry!
To help prevent an infection, do the same things you would do to avoid the common cold:

• Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water, preferably for 20 seconds or with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer
• Keep your unwashed hands and fingers away from your eyes, nose, and mouth
• Avoid close contact with people who may be (remember, you never know if it’s a cold or coronavirus acting up) or are infected

Be Responsible!
If you have cold-like symptoms, you should help protect others by:

• Staying home during your sickness
• Avoiding close contact with others
• Covering your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze, then throwing the tissue in the trash and wash your hands
• Cleaning and disinfecting objects and surfaces

It’s never too late, we hope.
Unfortunately, there is no vaccine for coronavirus.
You treat a coronavirus infection the same way you treat a cold:

• Get plenty of rest
• Drink fluids
• Take pain and fever medications (do not give Aspirin to children)
• Use a room humidifier or take a hot shower to help ease a sore throat and cough

Who am I kidding?
I have tried to make this article as less scary as possible only to realize that I can’t really euphemize such adversities. Please do what you can to protect yourself and others. Dhaka is yet to see the catastrophe of Coronavirus, and of course, we want to keep it that way. Also, “Everywhere’s a here, isn’t it?” ― Ali Smith, Winter



Contributor:
Sadea Naowar Khan
Department of Finance
Faculty of Business Studies
University of Dhaka