Bat, romp, Uhane market? Coronavirus “mint feet”

According to the BBC’s Russian news service, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that a team of experts will visit China in the near future to help the country’s scientists identify the true source of the new coronavirus, which It has claimed more than 580,000 lives worldwide.

The BBC emphasizes that this is not being done to find those responsible for the pandemic outbreak. The purpose of the scientific expedition is much more pragmatic.

WHO, like the entire international community, wants to prevent similar emergencies in the future as much as possible.

In 2004, researchers had already successfully prevented the recurrence of “severe acute airway syndrome” – SARS.

It’s because after the first outbreak, experts identified the source of the virus, tracked its focus, and as soon as the virus began to spread again among humans, it was able to quickly neutralize it.

Two questions

An article published on the BBC’s Russian news service website says that despite the similarities between the two viruses, SARS and COVID-19, the latter has proven to be a “much stronger nut” than its predecessor. It will not be easy to solve the riddle of its origin.

However, the experience of past epidemics prompts researchers in which direction to work.

Also, the new coronavirus itself, which did not have a name half a year ago, though not complete, has nevertheless been researched enough to hope that it will succeed.

To avoid a second epidemic, scientists must answer two questions as precisely as possible, writes the BBC News Russian journalist.

First, from what “natural source” did the virus come. In other words, what wild animals are their carriers, which can threaten a new global epidemic.

Second, like the coronavirus, which previously infected only animals, “it overcame the interspecific barrier,” that is, how it acquired the ability to spread from person to person.

You need to understand what mutation caused this change and how likely it is to happen again.

How to find a “zero patient”?

“One thing when a virus spreads from person to person is that our immune systems have the same, the same anatomy, similar genes. However, to go from animal to human, the virus must overcome a much larger ‘evolutionary barrier’. This it’s a significant change. That’s why it happens so rarely, “the BBC’s Russian news service cites Samara Met as one of the leading experts in the biology laboratory Sabeti Lab at Harvard University.

However, to move from animal to human, the virus must overcome a much larger “evolutionary barrier”. This is a significant change.

He says that each virus has its own genome: a specific DNA or a sequence of ribonucleic acid. It is completely unique, so much so that it can be compared to, for example, a fingerprint.

With each new infection, the viral genome changes slightly.

“It just came to our attention then. However, this does establish a link between the two infected. And if my fingerprints and my brother’s fingerprints have nothing in common, then my virus and my neighbor’s virus will be virtually identical.” says S. Meta.

As a result, geneticists can determine the sequence of how the infection was transmitted with sufficient precision. Identify which patient you infected.

And so, and to understand who was the first to get sick, the so-called zero patient, from which the epidemic began.

Finding it, according to an article published on the BBC’s Russian news service website, can also be used to find the animal the person became infected with.

There may be a recent pandemic

This is exactly the path taken by Chinese scientists when they realized that an outbreak of an unknown disease caused by a new virus had erupted in Wuhan.

According to the BBC, the researchers took samples of the genetic material from all the patients at the time, deciphered them and began comparing them to each other, placing a sequence of differences in the viral genome.

The result is a series of long human “chains” that show how the virus is transmitted.

Alina Chan, an American professor at the Broad Institute, is one of the authors of the much-discussed article on the origins of COVID-19.

He claims that genetically, the coronavirus is perfectly adapted for transmission from person to person, the author said.

And this, according to an article in the BBC’s Russian news service, means that the current pandemic may not be the last if the virus is known to have “close relatives” in nature.

According to the scientist, this cannot be ruled out at all. We still don’t know where the virus came from.

Genetics has failed to bring the infected Uhane chain to the original point from which the virus began to spread.

Genetics has failed to bring the infected Uhane chain to the original point from which the virus began to spread.

There are five of these “starting points”, unrelated to each other.

Although a “zero patient” could not be identified, the researchers do not lose hope, sooner or later, of determining where the disease began to spread.

The virus was detected in the body of the civet.

In early January, as soon as Chinese researchers deciphered the ribonucleic acid from the virus that caused the unknown disease and compared the results to those available in the database, it was clear that it was 80 percent. matches the SARS genome.

Epidemiologists took half a year to discover the source of SARS, according to the BBC Russian news service A. Chan.

The researchers found that the first to become infected with the virus visited a local market where wildlife was traded, and realized that the source of the infection was probably there.

After more than a month of research, researchers were able to find an identical virus in the body of the Himalayan civet.

“When the second SARS outbreak occurred in late 2003, scientists have discovered where to look for the culprits,” the BBC told Chan. – Upon learning that one of the first patients was working as a waitress, epidemiologists immediately went to that restaurant. There they found a civet, tested the virus and tested positive. “

Upon learning that one of the first patients was working as a waitress, epidemiologists immediately went to that restaurant. There they detected a civet, tested the virus and tested positive.

When it became clear that COVID-19 was close to SARS, the researchers realized that its source should probably also be sought in local wildlife markets.

But what to study this time, isn’t the civet again?

Not related to the market.

The closest genetically related “relative” of SARS-COVID 19, as well as available databases, appeared the RATG13 virus.

In 2013, it was found in bats in Yunnan.

The genomes of the two viruses matched 96.2 percent, according to an article in the BBC’s Russian news service.

This time, however, research by researchers in the Wuhan market is stagnant.

To the geneticists’ surprise, the viruses found in all the animal samples on the market turned out to be more “related” to the new coronavirus than the one found more than six years ago a thousand kilometers from Wuhan.

A little later, another unexpected detail emerged: Only one of the top five confirmed cases of coronavirus infection was associated with the Wuhan market.

This means that the other four people contracted the virus elsewhere, perhaps even in different locations.

“The problem with COVID-19 is that we have yet to find a version of SARS-CoV-2 in any animals that suggests humans have been infected with the virus.” So far, by contrast, all animals in which SARS-CoV-2 has been found have been infected by humans, “says researcher A. Chan.

The problem with COVID-19 is that we have yet to find a version of SARS-CoV-2 in any animals that suggests humans have been infected with the virus.

The issue has become politicized.

For a long time, scarring was considered an intermediate host for SARS-CoV-2.

In the past, the body of these animals was found to be partially similar to the virus.

According to A.Chan, so far, the only thing that can be said firmly about the new coronavirus is that it is genetically well adapted to spread easily from person to person.

Meta ensures that sooner or later scientists will be able to find answers to the questions. It is important not to stop looking, otherwise the recurrence of the epidemic will be inevitable.

“Scientists around the world are working tirelessly to understand the biology and epidemiology of the virus, developing treatments, vaccines, basically doing everything possible to anticipate and eventually face a possible pandemic.” Never before has the scientific community been so united in the face of a common problem. However, the question of the origin of SARS-CoV-2 has become so politicized that people have forgotten the goal: the answer is necessary above all to prevent future outbreaks of coronavirus, “said Chan.

However, the question of the origin of SARS-CoV-2 has become so politicized that people have forgotten the goal: the answer to it is necessary first and foremost to prevent further outbreaks of coronavirus in the future.