How COVID-19 Kills: The New Coronavirus Disease Can Take A Deadly Turn
More than 1,300 people, almost all in China, have now died from COVID-19 — the newly minted name for the coronavirus disease first identified in Wuhan, China, that has infected more than 55,000 people.
Yet according to the World Health Organization, the disease is relatively mild in about 80% of cases, based on preliminary data from China.
What does mild mean?
And how does this disease turn fatal?
The first symptoms of COVID-19 are pretty common with respiratory illnesses — fever, a dry cough and shortness, a professor of medicine and global health at Emory University who has consulted with colleagues treating coronavirus patients in China and Germany. "Some people also get a headache, sore throat," he says. Fatigue has also been reported — and less commonly, diarrhea. It may feel as if you have a cold. Or you may feel that flu-like feeling of being hit by a train.
