Confused about some of the words floating around in the midst of the ongoing Covid-19 health crisis? By and large, how we talk nowadays is influenced by the new Coronavirus disease with new words associated with the disease now commonplace. But some people don't grasp the meaning and context when terms like "social distancing", "flattening the curve”, "pandemic", and others are used.
The New Times too often uses such newly prominent terms and words associated with the disease. Here, we compiled a glossary that includes some of the more commonly used Covid-19 terms.
Coronavirus
Coronavirus (from Latin "corona” meaning crown, describing the curious spikes on its surface) is a family of respiratory viruses that can cause a range of symptoms. Four strains of it are responsible for the common cold.
Covid-19
Used practically interchangeably with coronavirus, Covid-19 is the abbreviation of coronavirus disease 2019. Covid-19 is the disease caused by the new coronavirus that originated in December 2019; hence the name, from COronaVIrus Disease-19.
Epidemic vs pandemic
The difference here is fuzzy. However, while an epidemic, a temporary prevalence or rapid spread of a disease, occurs on a community or regional level, a pandemic is an epidemic that has spread over a large area and has become prevalent throughout an entire country, continent, or the whole world. The World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic on March 11 after it spread to more than 100 countries.
Lockdown
An emergency measure in which individuals are restricted from certain areas in an attempt to control exposure or transmission of disease. In a lockdown such as during the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, countries have on different occasions encouraged people to stay home.
Flattening the curve
This is a reference to the curve in a chart that shows when a surge of new coronavirus cases is expected to strike. A higher curve means more cases in a shorter period.
The curve represents the number of cases over time. When the number of positive cases of Covid-19 is plotted on a graph, the recovered cases are not subtracted, so the curve never goes down. But if fewer and fewer cases occur each day, the line stops going up and starts going horizontal. This is called flattening the curve. Flattening that curve means preventing a surge of new cases in a short period of time.
Physical distancing vs social distancing
These terms mean the same thing. Social distancing was the original term, but because it sounded too negative physical distancing is now prefered or considered more accurate. Physical distancing is the practice of maintaining greater space between oneself and others and or avoiding direct contact with other people. To avoid Covid-19 spread, health officials recommend staying home except for essentials and keeping a distance of at least two metres from anyone outside your family or household members.
Respirator vs Ventilator
A respirator is a face mask that seals around the mouth and filters out particles from the air before they are breathed in. An N95 respirator, for example, filters out 95 percent of tiny test particles.
But a ventilator is a machine designed to move air in and out of the lungs for a patient who is physically unable to breathe or who is not breathing well. Since Covid-19 can cause severe lower respiratory infection, ventilators are a being used to help critically ill patients to breathe.
Personal Protective Equipment
Just called PPE, this often refers to any gear worn by frontline workers to protect them and patients from disease.
It can be items such as masks, goggles, gloves, gowns, aprons, respirators, and face shields. PPE is also specialized clothing or equipment, worn by an employee for protection against infectious materials.
Contact Tracing
This is a critical tool in slowing the spread of the coronavirus. Contact tracing is the practice of identifying and monitoring individuals who may have had contact with an infectious person as a means of controlling the spread of a communicable disease, according to Merriam-Webster.
When a person tests positive for Covid-19, public health workers immediately track down all recent contacts of that person. This could be other passengers on a plane, family, co-workers and or acquaintances.
Hydroxychloroquine
An oral drug often used by doctors to treat rheumatoid arthritis and lupus and was touted by President Donald Trump as a possible treatment for the coronavirus.
But various studies have shown that, instead of helping those who have Covid-19, it puts patients at a higher risk of a heart attack. However, its effectiveness in treating patients with Covid-19 disease is still in question.
Asymptomatic vs symptomatic
Some Covid-19 carriers have no idea they have the virus. This type of person is often asymptomatic, or is defined as someone who is a carrier of an illness but does not show symptoms.
Asymptomatic means presenting no symptoms of disease. In the case of Covid-19, this means absence of fever, dry cough, sore throat, shortness of breath and body aches, among other symptoms.
Symptomatic means showing symptoms of Covid-19. Health officials believe the risk of transmitting the virus is highest when an individual is symptomatic.
Drive-thru testing
The Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) announced plans to start a new random Covid-19 drive-through testing program on the streets of Kigali from July 2.
As part of the national response to coronavirus, drive-thru testing is now available in some places. It is a process that allows you to be swabbed for the virus without leaving your car.
Self-quarantine vs. self-isolate
These two words almost mean the same thing and some people are just using "self-isolate” for both. Isolation and quarantine are practices used to prevent exposure to people who have or may have a contagious disease.
When you stay home for 14 days because you have flu-like symptoms, you are self-isolating or separating yourself from others. To self-quarantine means to stay home as a precaution, such as when you arrive from travel abroad.
It is the act of refraining from any contact with other individuals for a period of time to observe whether any symptoms of the disease will arise after potential exposure.
However, while isolation separates sick people with a contagious disease from people who are not sick, quarantine separates and restricts the movement of people suspected to be or who were exposed to a contagious disease to see if they become sick.
Herd immunity
Herd immunity is the indirect protection from a contagious infectious disease that happens when a population is immune either through vaccination or immunity developed through previous infection.
Herd immunity, also called community immunity and herd or group protection, happens when so many people in a community become immune to an infectious disease that it stops the disease from spreading.
According to available literature, this means that even people who aren’t vaccinated, or in whom the vaccine doesn’t trigger immunity, are protected because people around them who are immune can act as buffers between them and an infected person.
But the idea of herd immunity as a solution to the Covid-19 pandemic has triggered heated debate.
RAT vs PCR test
After opening the country’s airspace, Dr. Daniel Ngamije, Rwanda’s Minister of Health said they received some passengers who arrived with RAT (Rapid antigen test) results yet Rwanda was only accepting PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test results.
Dr. Ngamije said this situation gave health officials an additional burden; isolating affected travellers, and re-testing them to find out if they are really negative.
According to experts, both RT-PCR test and Rapid Antigen Test lookout for the virus in the sample and are used for the diagnosis of Covid-19.
A rapid antigen test (RAT) is a rapid diagnostic test suitable for point-of-care testing that directly detects the presence or absence of an antigen (a toxin which induces an immune response in the body, especially the production of antibodies). This distinguishes RAT from other medical tests that detect antibodies.
Literature indicates that an RT-PCR test has a high specificity rate; gives less false positives. Only nasal swabs are collected for the Rapid Antigen Test which is said to have moderate sensitivity, and can give false negative results for Covid-19, though quick and cheap.
The Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), considered as the gold standard for testing, is a laboratory technique that combines what is called reverse transcription of Ribonucleic acid (RNA) into Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and amplification of specific DNA targets using polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
RNA and DNA are nucleic acids