In 2003, the Chinese population was infected with a virus causing Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Guangdong province. The virus was confirmed as a member of the Beta-coronavirus subgroup and was named SARS-CoV . The infected patients exhibited pneumonia symptoms with a diffused alveolar injury which lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). SARS initially emerged in Guangdong, China and then spread rapidly around the globe with more than 8000 infected persons and 776 deceases. A decade later in 2012, a couple of Saudi Arabian nationals were diagnosed to be infected with another coronavirus. The detected virus was confirmed as a member of coronaviruses and named as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV). The World health organisation reported that MERS-coronavirus infected more than 2428 individuals and 838 death. MERS-CoV is a member beta-coronavirus subgroup and phylogenetically diverse from other human-CoV. The infection of MERS-CoV initiates from a mild upper respiratory injury while progression leads to severe respiratory disease. Similar to SARS-coronavirus, patients infected with MERS-coronavirus suffer pneumonia, followed by ARDS and renal.

Recently, by the end of 2019, WHO was informed by the Chinese government about several cases of pneumonia with unfamiliar etiology. The outbreak was initiated from the Hunan seafood market in Wuhan city of China and rapidly infected more than 50 peoples. The live animals are frequently sold at the Hunan seafood market such as bats, frogs, snakes, birds, marmots and rabbits. On 12 January 2020, the National Health Commission of China released further details about the epidemic, suggested viral pneumonia . From the sequence-based analysis of isolates from the patients, the virus was identified as a novel coronavirus. Moreover, the genetic sequence was also provided for the diagnosis of viral infection. Initially, it was suggested that the patients infected with Wuhan coronavirus induced pneumonia in China may have visited the seafood market where live animals were sold or may have used infected animals or birds as a source of food. However, further investigations revealed that some individuals contracted the infection even with no record of visiting the seafood market. These observations indicated a human to the human spreading capability of this virus, which was subsequently reported in more than 100 countries in the world.

Source : www.sciencedirect.com

Edited by : Kshitija Saxena

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