Coronavirus

As I write these lines, the novel coronavirus epidemic that began in Wuhan, China on December 8, 2019, has more people than the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Infects Joint. "In this blog written by BMC Infectious Disease Editorial Board Member Dr. Ghazi Kayali, we discuss the rise of the novel 2019 coronovirus and its significant public health impact. As of 3 February 2020, 171789 cases have been confirmed. China and 24 other countries, of which 362 patients have died. It has also killed more than 60 million people under orders of the Movement banned by the Chinese government. Responding, wearing masks in public (at risk of arrest), for example, increased their health capacity by building a 1200-bed hospital in just 10 days. The epidemic causes an average of 2000 new cases a day. Globally, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) declared asylum on 30th J 2020 the public health emergency of international concern. Or. It defines the outbreak as an "extraordinary event that constitutes a public health risk to other states through the international spread of the disease and potentially determines the need for a coordinated international response". Many countries and airlines immediately suspended travel from the affected areas, closed some borders with China, and began extensive preventive screening at airports. In addition, Chinese authorities revealed that a novel beta-coronavirus named 2019-nCoV caused the outbreak. It was soon found to be genetically important related to SARS-CoV and other bat coronavir. Initial cases were related to a seafood market in Wuhan, where live animals were sold. This suggested a possible animal reservoir for this virus and suggested zoonotic (human to animal) transmission. Later, environmental samples obtained from this market were found to be positive for 2019-nCoV, reinforcing the hypothesis that it is a zoonotic virus. Although the virus was originally found to start among infected animals, most cases reported later were shown to be due to human-to-human transmission. Baita-coronavirus has caused epidemics in the last 2 decades. In 2003, SARS-CoV was discovered in China before it spread globally, infecting 8,098 people and killing 774 people. It was later found to be zoonotic in origin and was later introduced between a bat reservoir before infecting a wild reservoir cats and raccoon dogs. Live wild animals destined for human consumption were being sold in markets. In 2012, the MERS-CoV was also discovered in Saudi Arabia, with 2506 confirmed cases and 862 deaths worldwide before the outbreak globally. Then, it began as a zoonotic virus, which was shown to migrate from camels to humans and was initially thought to emerge from bats. The response to such epidemics requires not only a huge public health and medical response, but also a huge research response. Policy makers need to rapidly answer important scientific questions to tell them what else to expect in order to direct their response capabilities. According to epidemiology, the transmission rate of the virus should be calculated to model the number of expected cases. Methods of transmission need to be described so that appropriate preventive action is taken. Cases need to be delineated so that the most serious and likely to die patients are taken care of first. Laboratory researchers will need a copy of the virus to study its transmission and pathogen and work towards finding a vaccine or cure. Importantly, the animal reservoir through which humans become infected must be identified to break the initial transmission cycle. When MERS was discovered, a group of funny scientists, led by Dutch investigators, were able to associate the new virus with camels, showing that the camel sera contained antibodies to this new virus. The group was eligible to earn a scientific scoop, but did the right thing by telling other coronovirus researchers about their findings before their research paper was published. Taking this signal, my group began sampling camels and verified that camels actually have antibodies to MERS-CoV in collaboration with researchers from the University of Hong Kong. Later, we were able to separate the MERS-CoV from the camels. The determination of animal reserves allows identification of people exposed to camels as at-risk populations and targeted public health prevention campaigns. The animal reservoir for 2019-nCoV has not yet been determined. I hope that researchers are making this a top priority and I hope that they will suit Dutch scientists by alerting other research groups to potential animal reservoirs at the first available opportunity.