SARS-CoV-2, a type of coronavirus that causes COVID-19, may be derived from bats, but how it infects people is currently the subject of strong speculation and is currently worldwide. It is being investigated by the Health Organization (WHO). ..
DW Academia WHO experts report that they arrived in China today and conducted a long-awaited investigation into the origin of COVID-19.
A total of 10 researchers specializing in public health, ecology, and virology hope to find answers to important questions about how and when SARS-CoV-2 first infected humans. ..
More than a year has passed since the first case of COVID-19 reported in China in December 2019, but the time and place of the virus’s first outbreak remains unknown to experts.
Most of the evidence so far mentions a horseshoe, Bat Current studies in China, including studies suggesting that COVID-19 is already underway Circulate in Italy As early as November 2019, it reminds us that outbreaks of infectious diseases are often more complex than they look.
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(Photo: John Moore / Getty Images)
SARS-CoV-2, a type of coronavirus that causes COVID-19, may be derived from bats, but how it infects people is currently the subject of strong speculation and is currently worldwide. It is being investigated by a health agency.
Starting point
According to experts, “tracing the virus back to its starting point” is essential to better understand how and when humans are first infected, both now and in the future.
At the onset of an outbreak, tracking the infection back to the starting point can delay the spread of the disease before it goes out of control.
Pathogens can be stopped if we can identify each case, track each contact, and isolate each potential carrier.
However, according to virologist Naomi Forester Soto, who studies vector infections at Keele University in the United Kingdom, the initial management period has been lost since then. COVID-19 (new coronavirus infection) (# If there is no character limit, add parentheses when it first appearsDiscover, “The origin of the virus can give us useful insights.”
Virologists added that the more we understand how infections occur, the more accurately we can predict and control them.
However, that does not necessarily mean identifying COVID-19 “zero patients”, which many experts, including Forrester-Soto, no longer consider possible.
Instead, determine in which species COVID-19 is most likely to occur, and in what particular circumstances “animal-to-human”.
What are you missing?
The first COVID-19 case was discovered in Wuhan, China in December 2019, and much of the speculation about its starting point is the probability of transmitting people from bats through another species sold on the wet market. It’s focused, but it may have come from somewhere.
Chinese officials also said the disease could have occurred in a completely different country. Researchers don’t provide much credibility with this theory, but WHO experts reiterate that they “maintain an open mind as an all-potential starting point.”
According to Martin Beer, a professor of virology at the Federal Institute of Animal Health in Germany, the origin of COVID-19 may be in China, where “the first cluster of infection was seen”.
But he added that it does not necessarily mean that the first spillover appeared in the wet market, or even in Wuhan, as mentioned above.
Samples collected and stored after the outbreak of SARS-CoV-1 in 2013 RaTG13 bat virus It can be seen that the spread to the turtles in Yunnan, China has 96% similarity. SARS-COV-2 It causes COVID-19.
Samples collected and stored after the 2013 SARS-CoV-1 outbreak show that the RaTG13 bat virus circulating in horseshoe-shaped bats in Yunnan, China, is 96% similar to the new coronavirus that causes COVID. is showing.
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