Covid-19 is an acute respiratory syndrome that belongs to the Coronaviridae family. The virus is spread through aerosols and respiratory droplets. Once it gets to the body, the virus binds to body receptors and crosses into the cells by endocytosis. Viral maturity occurs in the cell, after which it is released to attack adjacent epithelial cells (Sadhukhan et al. 3822) The upper respiratory tract suffers entirely from the virus invasion, with the lungs suffering the worst damage.
Covid-19 invades the lungs directly and destroys the body alveoli. Once the alveoli are damaged, their function of facilitating gaseous exchange in the lungs is impaired. The virus attacks the alveoli and capillaries by destroying their cell walls (Menter et al. 200). The plasma proteins that result as debris of the damaged walls accumulate along the alveolus walls, making them thicken. The thickening causes impairment in oxygen transportation resulting in breathing difficulties.
Breathing difficulties result in oxygen shortage in the body, causes a deficit of oxygen supplied to body organs altering their functioning. When the body detects the damage done to the lungs, the immune system is provoked. The immune system tries to fight back to stop viral replication. If the immune system is too weak to fight back, viral replication aggravates, causing further destruction (Nienhold et al. 8). Air sac damage results in a liquid influx into the cells resulting in pneumonia. In case the virus is not destroyed, the respiratory tract is wholly destroyed, resulting in death.
From chapter 17, the mechanics of breathing, the study of respiratory system functions are discussed. The chapter describes the gaseous exchange and ventilation. This is related to how Covid-19 is transmitted and its progress in invading the body. Chapter 18 discusses gaseous exchange in lungs and gas transportation in the body. Covid-19 damages the lungs, alveoli, and capillaries, hindering gaseous exchange, oxygen transportation, and ventilation in the body.
Works Cited
Menter, Thomas, et al. “Postmortem examination of COVID‐19 patients reveals diffuse alveolar damage with severe capillary congestion and variegated findings in lungs and other organs suggesting vascular dysfunction.” Histopathology, vol 77, no 2, 2020, pp 198-209.
Nienhold, Ronny, et al. “Two distinct immunopathological profiles in autopsy lungs of COVID-19.” Nature Communications, vol 11, no 1, 2020, pp 1-13.
Sadhukhan, Pritam, M. Talha Ugurlu, and Mohammad O. Hoque. “Effect of COVID-19 on Lungs: Focusing on Prospective Malignant Phenotypes.” Cancers, vol 12, no 12, 2020, p 3822.