What actually happens in your body, when coronavirus enters your body?

What actually happens in your body, when coronavirus enters your body?

COVID-19 is a contagious viral infection that attacks primarily your throat and lungs.

The coronavirus must infect living cells in order to reproduce. Inside the virus, genetic material contains the information to make more copies of itself. A protein shell provides a hard protective enclosure for the genetic material as the virus travels between the people it affects.

cross section of corona virus


When an infected person talks, coughs or sneezes, droplets carrying the virus may land in your mouth or nose and then move into your lungs. Once inside your body, the virus comes into contact with cells in your throat, nose or lungs.

The COVID-19 is similar to SARS and has spikes on it.

Inside your body coronavirus starts from the cellular level. The spikes on the virus get locked to your cell membrane and then penetrates inside the cell and reach the cell's nucleus and then the virus's genetic material enters the nucleus. Every cell contains mitochondria which generate energy for the entire cell. Now the viral genetic material which entered the cell takes the energy from mitochondria and makes thousands of copies of itself and multiplies itself inside the cell. A new virus copy will be formed on the cell's membrane which will detach from the cell and attacks another cell. this process will continue until you have life on your body.

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Coming to your lungs, each lung has separate sections, called lobes. Normally as your breath in, air moves freely through your trachea(windpipe) then through large tubes, called bronchi, through smaller tubes called bronchioles and finally into tiny sacs called Alveoli. On these sacks, small blood vessels called capillaries, exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide. Your airways catch most of the germs in the mucus that lines your trachea, bronchi, and bronchioles. In a healthy body, hair-like cilia lining the tubes constantly push the mucus and germs out of your airways which would normally go off the body when you cough or sneeze.

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The cells of your immune system attack the virus to reach Alveoli. But in case of the weakened immune system, the virus overwhelms the immune system and as your immune system attacks the multiplying viruses, it causes inflammation in the Alveoli and filled with fluid making it difficult for capillaries to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide. and then the symptoms arise difficulty in breathing, chest pain, coughing, fever and chills, confusion, headache, muscle pain, and fatigue. It can also lead to more serious complications. Respiratory failure occurs when your breathing becomes so difficult that you need a machine called a ventilator to help you breathe.

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Coming to the vaccine, It's a race against time to develop a vaccine amid a pandemic. each step in vaccine development takes months if not years. An Ebola vaccine broke the record by being ready in 5 years. The hope here is to develop one for the coronavirus in a record-breaking 12 to 18 months.

The researchers have found that coronavirus can live up to three hours in the air, up to four hours on copper and up to 24 hours on cardboard. It can last up to three days on plastic and stainless steel. So, always wash your hands before eating, or touching your body parts. Stay home, stay safe.