Coronavirus: course of the disease, treatment and duration

How does a treatment for Corona look like?

Unfortunately, no valid studies and only insufficient information on the exact symptoms and consequently also on the course of the disease are known in detail. What is certain is that the corona virus can affect everyone in different ways. The incubation period can also vary between three and 14 days. 

According to the Robert Koch Institute and the Federal Ministry of Health, the first symptoms are mild to severe symptoms of a cold or flu . In most of the cases known to date, a predominantly dry cough and breathing problems initially occurred. In about every third person affected, the disease began with fever and body aches. However, these symptoms do not necessarily have to indicate the corona virus, but can also indicate seasonal flu or a severe cold. 

Since the coronavirus can make itself felt in everyone affected by different symptoms , the treatment must first focus on the symptoms. If you notice symptoms that could indicate the virus, you should call your doctor immediately and self-isolate. Your doctor will also advise you on how to behave. So far there is no vaccine against the virus , but research is already working on testing a vaccine .

Non-specific course of the disease

According to the Robert Koch Institute, the course of the disease is also unspecific. For you it means that you can either have mild symptoms that disappear quickly, or you can get severe pneumonia, i.e. pneumonia . In the worst case, it can lead to lung failure .

In this case, the patient must be artificially ventilated. If the person concerned is too weak, suffers from a previous illness, such as heart problems or diabetes, it can also lead to death. However , a typical course of the disease is not yet known . The course of the disease can therefore be manifested by the following symptoms: 

• Dry cough, difficulty breathing, shortness of breath
• A slowly rising fever, listlessness
• headache and body aches
• Diarrhea and vomiting are less common 

In contrast to influenza , the fever  in a corona infection does not appear suddenly, but  increases gradually . It can keep for up to ten days. As a result, the condition of the person affected does not deteriorate within a few hours, but only over the course of several days.

The duration of the illness

So far it has been assumed that an illness with the corona virus lasts about 14 days  if the symptoms are mild. In the case of severe symptoms, patients were only  finally healed after up to six weeks . In these cases, pneumonia usually occurred. For this reason, it is particularly important for risk groups to protect themselves from infection. These include:

• Elderly people over 50 years of age
• People with previous illnesses such as heart problems, diabetes, chronic lung diseases (bronchitis, asthma), chronic liver diseases, cancer
• People with a weakened immune system
• smoker

Pregnant women, infants and children  are not particularly at risk; they usually show mild symptoms or no symptoms at all when they become ill.