Coronavirus: The Words You Need To Understand: The News

Coronavirus: The Words You Need To Understand: The News

(Dictionnary)

We are affected by a tragic health crisis: COVID-19. As this big issue is spreading all over the world; it's important to learn the vocabulary linked to the Coronavirus. This is a list of ten important words about the Coronavirus. 

1) A Virus

The very first step of the vocabulary, is the word "virus" as it is the principal element of the crisis. 

A virus is an infectious agent that replicates only within the cells of living hosts, mainly bacteria, plants, and animals.

Viruses are composed of an RNA or DNA core, a protein coat, and, in more complex types, a surrounding envelope. They are ultramicroscopic, 20 to 300 nanometers (nm) in length. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. Viruses are also metabolically inert, which is why they only can replicate themselves in cells of living hosts. 

COVID-19 spreads through droplets from the mouth and nose of a person with COVID-19 after coughing, sneezing, exhaling, talking, etc.

2) Patient-zero

The second word is "patient-zero", the second step of the propagation. 

Patient zero refers to the person who is identified as the first person infected with a communicable disease during an outbreak.

Related terms are index case and index patient. An index case is the first known case of an infectious or genetic disease in a group of cases; the affected person is the index patient.

3) Incubation period

This third term is essencial to know.

Incubation period means the period between infection and the appearance of signs of a disease.

4) Symptom

The manifestation of a symptom, expresses the presence of a potencial virus in our body. 

Symptom is a phenomenon that arises from and accompanies a particular disease or disorder and serves as an indication of it.

Major symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, dry cough, fatigue, and difficulty breathing.

5) Ventilator

When a person inffected by this virus is in a very bad state, she or he needs to be in intensive care. The ventilator helps the patient to breathe. 

A ventilator is a machine that helps a patient breathe. It pumps oxygen into the lungs and removes  The carbon dioxide through a tube.

In medicine, ventilate can refer to oxygenating the blood (i.e., supplying it with oxygen) or helping someone breathe using a mechanical ventilator.

Because COVID-19 is a respiratory disease, it can cause lung inflammation, which makes it hard for patients to breathe. That’s why ventilators are necessary to help treat some patients with the infection, depending on the severity of their symptoms.

Ventilators are sometimes referred to as respirators. However, ventilators technically refer to machines that help patients breathe, not the protective respirators nurses and doctors wear.

6) Immunity

It exists many immunites from diseases, which can protect a human to be affected. 

Immunity is the state of being immune from (“protected from a disease”) or insusceptible to a particular disease; the condition that permits either natural or acquired resistance to disease.

Humans don’t currently have immunity to COVID-19.

7) Social-distancing

We have to take a lot of measures if we want to eradicate the virus. The social-distancing is one of them.

Social distancing refers to measures that reduce contact between large groups of people.

Social distancing measures often entail canceling big gatherings (such as conferences, classes, church services, concerts, and sporting events), restricting mass transit and travel, and working from home.

The CDC specifically recommends maintaining a distance of 6 feet (2 meters) between people.

8) Quarantine

The biggest measure taken by many countries, is the quarantine (or confinement). We all have to respect this period, by staying at home. 

Quarantine is a strict isolation imposed to prevent the spread of disease.

In public health, people are placed in quarantine when they are not currently sick, but have been or may have been exposed to a communicable disease. This helps stop the spread of the disease.

Self-quarantine is when someone isn’t ordered to go into quarantine but chooses to do so out of caution; also called voluntary quarantine.

9) Furlough

As we can't go to work, we have to work at home. This is called "teleworking", and it concerns an amount of people. Many human activities are stopped. 

A furlough is a usually temporary layoff from work. 

During the coronavirus outbreak, many workers were furloughed as businesses conducting non-essential activities were closed. This was done to prevent the spread of the disease by banning large gatherings as a form of social distancing.

10) Pandemic

This crisis is worse than an epidemic: this is a pandemic.

A pandemic is a disease prevalent throughout an entire country, continent, or the whole world. A pandemic is an epidemic that has spread over a large area.

The World Health Organization (WHO) specifically uses pandemic to refer to new diseases people do not have immunity for and that have spread worldwide. The WHO has declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.

Pandemic can be both a noun and an adjective (e.g., a pandemic disease).