BBC Learnings · Section 7

The medicine of coronavirus

Covid-19 has changed everyday life for people in countries around the world. But coronavirus wasn't the first pandemic to cause

Level: C1 · 109 sentences

Transcript

  1. Covid-19 has changed everyday life for people in countries around the world.
  2. But coronavirus wasn't the first pandemic to cause
  3. mass sickness and disrupt daily life.
  4. Between 2002 and 2004, an outbreak
  5. of the disease known as SARS,
  6. or severe acute respiratory syndrome, caused hundreds of deaths
  7. in southern China before spreading to other parts of the world.
  8. The virus that caused SARS survived by mutating,
  9. changing as it reproduced itself in the bodies of infected people,
  10. and this caused the virus to create
  11. strains – slight variations of the original.
  12. Covid-19, the disease caused by the strain
  13. of the original SARS virus we are experiencing
  14. now, has been called SARS 2.
  15. In this programme, we'll be looking at the origins of Covid-19
  16. and hearing new evidence about the scale
  17. of the threat we face from the disease.
  18. And of course, we'll be learning some new vocabulary as well.
  19. But first, it's time for our quiz question.
  20. We know that white blood cells make up part
  21. of the immune system our body needs
  22. to fight infectious diseases like Covid-19,
  23. but how many white blood cells per microlitre
  24. does the average adult human need?
  25. Is it a 7,000, b 17,000 or c 70,000?
  26. In that case I'd say more is better, so c 70,000.
  27. OK, we'll find out the answer
  28. at the end of the programme. Now, Georgina,
  29. You mentioned that the disease spreading across the world
  30. today wasn't the first Covid-19-type disease.
  31. That's right. In fact, a recent research project
  32. in China has identified over 700
  33. different types of coronavirus carried by bats.
  34. Some of these virus strains are thought
  35. to have already crossed over to humans.
  36. Dr Peter Daszak of New York's EcoHealth Alliance thinks that new strains
  37. of the virus have the potential to cause future pandemics.
  38. He spent years in the Chinese countryside looking
  39. for the coronaviruses that could jump from bats to humans.
  40. Here he is talking to the BBC World Service programme, Science in Action.
  41. It would have been great to have found the precursor to SARS-2,
  42. but what would have been even
  43. better is to have found it before SARS-2 emerged
  44. and raised the red flag on it
  45. and stopped the outbreak, but we didn't do that.
  46. What we were looking for were, at the time,
  47. our hypothesis was that SARS-1, the original SARS virus,
  48. which we all thought had disappeared,
  49. was still out there in bats.
  50. And that was what we were looking for.
  51. So we found a lot of SARS-1-related viruses.
  52. COVID-19 may have been contained if scientists
  53. had known more about the disease's precursor.
  54. That's a situation which existed before something
  55. and led to the development of that thing.
  56. Here, the precursor of COVID-19 was the original SARS-1.
  57. Any new cases of the virus
  58. would have been a red flag for another outbreak –
  59. a symbol of danger that some action needs to be taken.
  60. Dr Daszak believed that some form of SARS remained
  61. in bats and based his investigations on this hypothesis –
  62. an idea which is suggested as a possible explanation
  63. of something but which has not yet been proved correct.
  64. Another scientist working to prevent new epidemics
  65. is the pathologist Professor Mary Fowkes.
  66. The original SARS was treated as a respiratory disease which attacked the lungs.
  67. But when working with infected patients,
  68. Professor Fowkes noticed that Covid-19 was damaging the brain,
  69. blood and other organs as well.
  70. Clinicians have recognized that a lot
  71. of patients that have COVID are exhibiting confusion,
  72. not necessarily aware of their environment appropriately.
  73. Some are having seizures.
  74. So there are some central nervous system abnormalities.
  75. And as you know, a lot
  76. of patients are exhibiting loss of sense of smell,
  77. and that is a direct connection to the brain as well.
  78. In some infected patients, coronavirus attacks the central nervous system.
  79. the body's main system of nerve control consisting
  80. of the brain and spinal cord.
  81. When severe, this can cause seizures – sudden,
  82. violent attacks of an illness, often affecting the heart or brain.
  83. It seems that Covid-19-type diseases are not
  84. going to disappear any time soon.
  85. Reminding us of the importance of the scientific research we've heard about today.
  86. And the importance of boosting your immunity,
  87. which reminds me of today's quiz question.
  88. You asked me how many white blood cells
  89. per microlitre the human body has.
  90. I said C, 70,000.
  91. Well, if that was true, you've definitely boosted your immunity,
  92. Georgina, because the correct answer is C, just 7,000.
  93. Today we've been discussing the strains
  94. or slight variations of the virus which causes Covid-19.
  95. Covid-19 has a previous disease called SARS as its precursor,
  96. a situation which existed before something
  97. and caused the development of that thing.
  98. Researchers used the idea that the virus had passed
  99. to humans from bats as their hypothesis –
  100. possible explanation for something which has not yet been proved true.
  101. By identifying new virus strains, doctors hope unexplained cases
  102. can act as a red flag –
  103. a warning sign of danger to prevent further outbreaks.
  104. Knowing about new strains is increasingly important as we
  105. find out more about how coronavirus attacks
  106. the body's central nervous system – the brain and spinal cord –
  107. which in some patients can cause seizures – sudden,
  108. violent attacks of an illness especially affecting the heart or brain.
  109. So, try to stay safe, wash your hands.