COVID-19: A DANGEROUS DISEASE?

Over the past five months the world has been different. The roads and sidewalks of big cities around the world are silent, so are malls and recreation parks. What we thought a small problem turns out to be something that keeps getting worse and worse each day. The cause of all that chaos was nothing more than a simple microorganism from the same family as the one that caused an outbreak back to 2002, the Coronavirus, also known as Covid-19.

Coronavirus or Covid-19 is presumed to originate from the city of Wuhan, China. From a bat soup that was not properly cooked, the virus found its way into the human lungs in the process of consuming the unhygienic meal, where it grew inside and spread throughout the society and surroundings via aerosol particles and droplets of coughs and sneezes. The symptoms vary, from dry coughs and fever to nothing at all (unseen or undetected symptoms). In some cases, people don’t even realize that they have carried the virus within them, but somehow they don’t suffer the same symptoms as the ones who got dry coughs, fever, etc.

The effects on the human body mainly occur in the lungs, spleen, and intestines where the virus replicates itself using the cells of the organ infected and continues to replicate until its presence is detected by the immune system. But it doesn’t end there. The virus infects some of the immune system cells, making them attack each other and healthy organ (lung) cells. It also makes the immune system cells to overreact and start calling other immune cells to attack, making them aggressive and causing the loss of healthy cells and chaos among the immune cells. To put it simply, it turns the immune system which should be protecting our body but fight against ourselves. This leaves our body less protected, leaving room for bacteria to multiply and grow inside the lungs that can cause respiratory sickness such as pneumonia inside our already damaged lungs, which can lead to death if left untreated.

There’s also hope: more and more people recover from their illness. Not just a few, many people can defeat Covid-19. What our body really needs in times like this is the time to recover and healthy nutrition. Even without special treatment, our body can actually heal/recover itself. The easiest way to help our body is to give it some time to recover by isolating ourselves from other individuals. Our immune system already depleted while trying to fight the virus, and we can’t give bacteria a chance to interfere by going out and interact with the outside world. We can also help our body by giving it nutritious food. Our body needs the energy to produce the immune system to fend of foreign threats that can harm it. By doing self-isolation, not only we have helped ourselves to get better, but we also helped medical workers out there by not overloading the quota of severely sick patients.

We human beings have already been through a lot, from the Influenza virus that dates back to 1200 BC in Babylon to the Ebola, HIV, measles, and other epidemics that occurred in recent years, and yet we still manage to overcome and survive during those hard times. One thing for sure, whenever our existence is threatened, we always try to find ways to stay alive, to extend our lifeline in this world. We change for the better, we adapt, we survive. The key to accomplishing all of these is a strong will. If you value your life and your loved ones, then first you must strengthen your will to change for the better. By obeying the government’s regulations, keeping yourself healthy, and also keeping your distance from your loved ones and the people around you, not only you prevent the virus (if you have one but you don’t know) from spreading, but you’ve also protected your loved ones from the unseen danger. And just by doing those simple actions, know that you’re already changing for the better. (N)

Image was taken from https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2020/02/22/coronavirus-may-be-the-disease-x-health-agency-warned-about.html

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Nashry Haliim Risantosa

Let me introduce myself. My name is Nashry. I like doing sports and having fun like playing online games or hanging out with friends. I am the student of SMK Telkom Bandung, the third grade, majoring in Multimedia.

Speaking about life motto, I have my own. It is to live with honor, to die with respect.