The coronavirus pandemic has takeover the world. As we write this, 536,454 patients have been tested positive for COVID-19. The death toll has risen to 24,114 and about 124,395 people have been recovered from the infectious disease. However, with all the research work aggressively going on around the world, there is very little authentic information available. The medical experts are doing their best to work with what they have and amid all this, a video showing the lungs of a man tested positive for coronavirus but had been asymptomatic a few days earlier. Currently, he has the Covid-19 and his lungs are not functioning properly, leaving him on a ventilator. What Is It Like to Live with Coronavirus? Ohio Couple Shares a Word of Caution About the Prevention of COVID-19. 

George Washington University Hospital released a 3D video of the 59-year-old coronavirus patient's previously healthy lungs. Dr Keith Mortman, the chief of thoracic surgery at the Washington, D.C., hospital said to CNN that the man was only suffering from a high BP earlier and now the released imagery shows how extensive damage to the lungs is. In the 360° Virtual Reality fly-through, the damage to the lungs can be seen in yellow patches. These are damage caused by COVID-19 infection. Prevention: How to Keep Your Home Free of Coronavirus Germs? All You Need to Know About Using Hydrogen Peroxide to Disinfect Surfaces.

The patient is currently in the ICU and is in critical condition. He requires a ventilator to be able to breathe, but as per reports even "on the highest setting, it's not enough." However, the more worrying part is that he was a healthy man with a high BP earlier and the extent of damage done to his lung by coronavirus is shocking. Mortman said to CNN, "This is not a 70, 80-year-old immunosuppressed, diabetic patient. Other than high blood pressure, he has no other significant medical issues. This is a guy who's minding his own business and gets it ... If we were to repeat the 360VR images now, that is one week later, there is a chance that the infection and inflammatory process could be worse."

In the video, you'll see that the areas marked in yellow represent infected and inflamed parts of the man's lungs.  Mortman further reveals how the damage isn't localised but covers large areas of both his lungs. he further says the video shows "how rapidly and aggressively the infection can take hold, even in younger patients. A patient with healthy lungs would have no yellow on the scan."

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Explaining about coronavirus, Mortman says that the coronavirus is primarily respiratory in nature and that it "gets into the mucus membranes, and then it's in the lung. The way the body tries to control that is with inflammation." Stressing on the intensity of the infection, he says that  "The yellow marks both infection and inflammation. So you get this pretty strong inflammatory process in the lungs in the body's attempt to control the infection,"

Mortman says, "I want people to see this and understand what this can do. People need to take this seriously." He further stresses, "A lot of us, we are walking in the dark with this," Mortman said. "So we want to understand it as best we can. This was our first patient, but I am sure he is the first of what will likely become many in the coming weeks."

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 27, 2020 02:01 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).