Khalid Simply Says

How to Navigate the Corona Virus Sharing useful information from the Wall Street Journal Edited and summarized by Khalid Rehman. MD How to Navigate Corona Virus was published in the Wall Street Journal on Friday March 13, 2020. I found the information accurate, clear and timely and have summarized it here. What is Corona Virus and where did it come from?: The scientific name of this new (novel) virus is SARS-CoV-2 and the illness it causes is called COVID-19. It belongs to the Corona Virus family. SARS and MERS viruses are the other notable members of this family. It generally infects bats and small mammals. It is believed to have been transmitted to humans from a small mammal in the city of Wuhan in China. It is highly infectious and is transmitted through particles spread during coughing and sneezing. How do you know if you have it? The virus can cause mild flu like symptoms as well as lower respiratory infection like pneumonia. The early symptoms are sore thr...

Do I have common cold or Corona Virus? All of us have had viral infections sometimes in our lives. Common cold, the stomach virus and Influenza virus are some of the more common ones. The current worldwide epidemic named COVID-19 is a respiratory tract illness that is caused by a virus that belongs to the corona virus family. The official name of the virus is SARS-CoV-2. The other well-known viruses in the corona virus family are SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) viruses. The common way to diagnose infections is to culture the germs, e.g. for suspected strep throat, the doctor takes a swab from the throat and sends it to the lab for culture. The lab grows the bugs in the petri dish and report back to the doctor’s office in day or two. Unfortunately, viruses cannot be grown in the petri dish. So how do we diagnose viral infections?   There are essentially two methods: One is to determine if the patient has the in...