User:Corona Linda

Coronavirus 229E

I am a laboratory virologist in a pediatric hospital and thankfully my intense time of another 'virology season' is behind us. However, late this spring I became a victim of the Very Wicked Coronavirus 229E 6 Week Cold, which began on June 19. At first I thought it was a Parainfluenza 3 that was so popular amongst our pediatric population this spring. But my viral DFA was negative for the usual suspects. So a friend of mine who works for a neighboring viral R & D company tested my self-obtained nasopharyngeal swab. Three hours later she gave me my answer: Overwhelming Coronavirus 220E with a smattering of a Rhinovirus. It helps to have friends in the right places. Since I'm such a medical scientist who 'needs the data,' I finally had the answer.

Only those of us 'afflicted ones' know firsthand just how bad this virus is/was. I purposely stayed away from my 70-something-year-old parents because I knew if they caught this from me they would probably have been hospitalized and potentially died. Thankfully, working in the lab I didn't have direct patient contact. If I'd had a job involving direct patient contact, I probably would have been off from work for at least a week, and probably would have been on ribavirin or some other anti-viral med. As it was, I clung to my OTC 'pharmacy' stash in my purse. Daily iced mocha lattes just prior to beginning a work shift also got me through this ordeal by helping to combat the accompanying fatigue. Caffeine is such a great medicinal agent, when necessary.

Anyway, if anyone out there can answer a couple of questions I'd appreciate it. I did some reading on Wikipedia about the coronaviruses. Very interesting!

1. How did this particular coronavirus come to be named '229E?'  (Was it the lab room number where it was discovered?  Or maybe the number of projections coming off this 'flavor' of coronavirus bodies?  :))

2. If you had this wicked cold too, what was your experience like? I haven't gone into my personal details at this time because even though I don't mind discussing such details, I don't want to offend those who don't need 'all the information.'  :)

I think I'll have to travel over to the CDC website sometime and see what they have to say about the Coronavirus mini-pandemic of 2007-2008. Also, many thanks to Andrew in my lab who introduced me to Wikipedia.

Later taters,

Corona Linda