Coronavirus

Let’s make corona virus explanation interesting and understandable

What this virus actually is?

This prevalent virus “COVID-19” is abbreviated from coronavirus disease-19  as it appeared in China in late 2019. This is a single-stranded RNA virus having an envelope around it and also some projections around it which are club shaped. This can cause illness in humans or animals.

How this virus spreads?

This can be transmitted from person to person and is also zoonotic disease which means that one can acquire it from animals too.

Let us suppose that someone coughed in front of you without using handkerchief or mask and that tiny droplets lands on your cloth or maybe any other object,  you unknowingly touched that area where it landed followed by using those unwashed hands to have food. This is how your body gets invaded by this micro-virus indirectly and unfortunately your body acts as a workshop for the virus where it starts doing its job of proliferation taking your life as its emolument. Isn’t it scary?  So beware Homo sapiens!! 

How it invades your body?

This spoiled brat is extremely particular about the location where it wants to show its power of infecting and thus can be called as “fastidious”. It is shown to grow only in respiratory epithelial cells. Inflammation and causing cell damage is its major concern. It enters the host cell, binds itself with spiky structures there eventually causing its fusion with the cell membrane. Its love with lung’s epithelial cells happens at prima facie and hugs this membrane of cells in such a way that it becomes difficult for our body to ignore its proposal consequently letting him to replicate enormously. Love hurts!!! Am I right?

What are the symptoms shown by COVID-19 infected individual?

Fever, cough and shortness in breath are the major symptoms shown by masses infected with this. These symptoms are supposed to appear within 2-14 days (depends on person’s immunity). The more your body will go on falling for him, the more it will go on replicating thus causing severe illness but if your body cells are intelligent and strong enough then it will end up showing mild symptoms and can be cured easily using proper medications.

What should one do  to boost the immunity against COVID-19?

1. It is true that only one particular food will not help to improve functioning of immune system but a proper sense to stick to a diet providing you with all the essential nutition is necessary. Diabetic patients are more likely to be exposed to this virus which clears one thing that low carb diet can prove effective in treating this.
2. Mine and yours favourite "sleep" also helps ; so one should prioritize the sleep hygiene. Happy sleep hours folks!!!!
3. Its time to give views to some good exercise channels on you tube as exercise is also benificial to make your immune system feel strong similar to one of your loved ones makes you feel when you are in trouble.
4. Befool your brain by remaining gleeful all the time and making your brain forget that there even exists a term called “stress’’. If you are a chronic stress taker then it will negatively effect your immunity. Just think of you enjoying holidays with your family, playing cards,chess and ludo .So let it be. Try living and cherishing the present as worrying for future can make things worse.
5. Heavy drinker's immune system and coronavirus share a good bond with each other. If you can understand what I meant here!!!!
6. Vitamin-C and vitamin-D in diet can also help
7. Turmeric and garlic in food is so common In Indian’s food which is one of the excellent ways to enhance immune function.

          All in all, have everything in limits as we all know that excess of everything is bad

Some more useful information:-

1. Antibiotics act only against bacteria not viruses. So avoid being a self-proclaimed  doctor.

2. People of all ages can be infected by novel coronavirus but people with some pre-existing medical conditions, old and children are more vulnerable. This clarifies that atleast coronavirus is unorthodox!!!

3. Coronavirus carries a prestige of its own, so it wants its own vaccine which is not yet found

4. Mosquito bites can not transfer this virus in our body so feel free and let them bite you.

5. Cold and hot temperatures have not that much to do  with its viability because we are warm blooded animals. Optimum temperature inside our body remains virtually 37 degree celsius all the time. So, once it gets inside, it will invade our system.

6. Let me acknowledge this that coronavirus can infect a person multiple number of times like common cold. In simple words it means that a relative who you donot want to come back ever to your house but the probability of him coming again is very high.

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Antibiotics

What are antibiotics?

Antibiotics are antimicrobial substances which are active against bacteria and are meant for fighting against bacterial infections. They act by either killing the bacteria or by inhibiting the growth of bacteria. In short, they save lives. One who often go for having antibiotics (when not needed) or not using them properly can lead to a condition called ''ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE". Resistance is the power of not getting affected by anything like humans get resistance to a particular disease by taking a particular antibiotic against that disease and bacteria gets resistant to a particular antibiotic by often exposing to it. Resistance mechanism adopted by humans is beneficial but on the other hand if once bacteria acquires this, it can be harmful too.

                   
                                  Figure 1: Occurance of antibiotic resistance
Different forms of antibiotics are

• Tablets
• Capsules
• Ointments
• Creams
• Liquids

Are antibiotics recommended during viral infections?

Antibiotics donot fight against viral infections flu, common cold, sore throats. More you take antibiotics during viral fever more it would cause harm. Viruses just insert their genetic material into the human cell's DNA so that they can reproduce. Bacteria and virus have different mechanisms of infecting an individual so antibiotic has no target to attack against viruses.

Figure 2: Virus inserting its genetic material into host

Whenever you take antibiotics, one have to follow the instructions carefully. Some people stop taking medicine whenever they feel better. But is it recommended? No, not at all. One have to finish the medicine for whatever span they have been recommended. If you stop the treatment soon, some bacteria may survive and can re-infect you soon.

How antibiotics work?

• They attack the cell wall or coating surrounding the bacteria and thus killing it.
• By just interfering with the reproductive cycle of bacteria
• By blocking the synthesis of proteins in bacteria

The span of taking antibiotics depends upon the type of infection. If the infection is severe then antibiotics are recommended for weeks to months but if the infection is not that severe then it can be cured within days. Here's an animated video that tells how antibiotics work↓↓

                                    

What are antibiotics made up of?

In earlier times, antibiotics were produced by bacteria found in ground soil but now-a-days all medicines or antibiotic medications are produced in lab. Some antibiotics are produced through a series of chemical reactions. 

Popular Bacterial Infection Drugs

Popularity	Drug Name	Drug Class
1	amoxicillin	Penicillin Antibiotics
2	Augmentin (amoxicillin/potassium clavulanate)	Penicillin Antibiotic / Beta Lactamase Inhibitor Combinations
3	Keflex (cephalexin)	Cephalosporin Antibiotics

Respiratory viruses usually just go away in 2-3 weeks without treatment. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) warns health professionals to only prescribe fluoroquinolones when another treatment option is unavailable. 

Several important steps can be taken to decrease inappropriate antibiotic use:

• Take antibiotics only for bacterial infections
• Take antibiotics as directed by your healthcare provider
• Take the right antibiotic

What are the common side effects of antibiotics?

• Diarrhea
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Cramps

Sometimes the side effects can be reduced by taking the antibiotic with food or sometimes on an empty stomach. The purpose of this article was to give a layman basic idea about what are antibiotics and what can happen to them if they take antibiotics without prescription. 

Good manufacturing practice

It refers to the regulations given by WHO to ensure that the products used by manufacturing industries are safe, pure & effective. These regulations require a quality approach to manufacturing, enabling the companies to eliminate the instances of contamination, errors and mix ups.

GMP is also referred to as "cGMP" where "c" stands for current which reminds the manufacturers to work according to the up-to-date rules given by WHO.

GMP is divided into four classes:
1. Class A
2. Class B
3. Class C
4. Class D

1. Class A : In this class the bacterial count is zero. Laminar air flow and biosafety cabinets are         included in this class. 
2. Class B : In this class the bacterial count is more than Class A. 
3. Class C : It is the biggest area in which sequence wise rooms are present. Here fermentation, detoxification, cleaning of equipments and incubation is done. It is further divided into two areas i.e. active & inactive area. In inactive area toxin collection is done and in active area fermentation is done.
4. Class D : In this area autoclaves are present i.e decontamination and sterilization. Pure steam is provided to sterilize the equipments. Steam is also divided into pure and plant steam. Quality of pure steam is better as it is provided to the inner part of the autoclave while plant steam is provided firstly in between the jackets of the autoclave. 

Other Important points: 

- Water used in GMP is 
1. Purified water (PW)
2. Water for injection (WFI) : It is heated at 80 degree Celsius. 

- CIP means Cleaning in Place. It means cleaning of the equipment at the place where it is present. It is done by following some steps:
                                       
 In 500L fermenter, 200 L of PW is added ==>> rinsing is done==> Sodium hydroxide + PW is added again to adjust the pH ==> cleaning + Draining is done ==> PW is provided again ==> draining is done ==> WFI is provided

- SIP means sterilization in place.

- In GMP floors are made up of epoxy material, silicon is used to fill the crevices, Lysol & Sodium hypochlorite is used for cleaning of the floor. 

- SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) is needed at every step in GMP. 

- All the available equipments and materials present inside GMP are made up of stainless steel, silicon, plastic, glass instead of wood because rusting takes place on it.

- Stainless Steel used for making of fermenters is SS316 (inside) & SS314 (outside)

- A Positive Pressure is maintained inside the GMP unit so that the outside air cannot enter inside.
                                        

Do's ✔️
1. Only authorized personnel are allowed inside the clean room ( where work is taking place )
2. Only dedicated tools are allowed inside the clean room.
3. Always make sure that your head an facial hair is covered inside the clean room.
4. Use pass through properly. 
5. Maintain good airflow management.

Don'ts ✖️
1. Do not use pass through for storage
2. People who are not fully trained should not be allowed to get inside the clean room.
3. Bare clothes and fibre clothes are not allowed inside the room
4. Do not gather inside, try to maintain silence.