Wuhan Coronovirus – Is A Global Pandemic Coming?

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The year 2020 has just begun and we are already witnesses to the first global drama. And everything is happening very fast. On the 31st December 2019 first cases of suspicious pneumonia emerged and just three weeks later a WHO emergency committee will take place.

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Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

SARS's Cousin

Chinese scientists have found the source of the illness pretty quickly. It is a so far unknown coronavirus. Coronaviruses are single-thread RNA viruses with a positive polarity with a very noticeable lipid coating shaped like the Solar corona and with a large genome – for an RNA virus. Originally they were known as sources for bird and mammal infections. Overtime coronavirus infections were discovered in humans but originally they weren't that serious. But then in 2002 SARS appeared and ten years later MERS.

It was SARS that caused a global pandemic and the main reason for worries that the world now has about the Wuhan Coronavirus. While SARS didn't kill many people it became quite notorious. And honestly, SARS could've been a truly serious and deadly pandemic. According to the Chinese data, the sequence of the new coronavirus is at least 70 % the same as SARS's is. It is obviously a close relative but at the same time, it is different from both SARS and MERS so we cannot be quite sure what to expect from the new virus. The new Coronovirus's sequence that has a length of roughly 30 kilobases seems to be quite similar to some Coronoviruses known from bats.

The Chinese Effort

Someone who isn't great at naming things named the new virus “2019-nCov”. But the much more elegant is the nickname Wuhan Coronavirus. China – as it does often – obfuscated at first. Chinese censors came to the Internet and censored any possible information about the Wuhan infection. And mostly, Chinese experts said that the coronavirus doesn't spread among humans and that all the ill people got infected on a large animal market in Wuhan.

The situation changed dramatically on the 21st of January 2020. China suddenly admitted what was being whispered for a few days – the Wuhan Coronovirus does spread among humans. Just a few hours ago a video was leaked on the internet showing the Chinese efforts to prevent a pandemic. The video shows Chinese medics in hazmats taking the temperature of people on board an interstate plane and searching for any ill people. That is at the very least unnerving.

The Current Situation & The Future

Currently, there are 323 confirmed patients in China, 2 in Thailand and one patient in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, in the USA each. In China, the Wuhan Coronavirus has been officially seen not only in Wuhan but in several other provinces and large cities including Beijing. This is no surprise as Wuhan itself is a gigantic city with roughly 10 – 11 million people living in it. And at the same time, it is an important traffic hub. There are additional hundreds of patients who have suspicious symptoms around the world and likely tenths of thousands in China itself.

So… What now? The 25th of January is the Chinese lunar New Year. The year of the Rat. This is a major Chinese holiday and a gigantic number of people should be traveling around China. Not even China with its authoritarian tools cannot stop the Wuhan Coronovirus from spreading under this circumstance. Countries all around the world are introducing safety features that are similar the those made when SARS was the thing to fear. And on the 22nd of January, the WHO Emergency Committee will take place because of it.

Experts say that it will be key to find out how easily does the Wuhan Coronovirus spread among humans and how lethal it is. The newest information we know tells us about 323 ill people and 6 dead but both those numbers aren't conclusive.

At this moment, with the immortal words of Douglas Adams – DON'T PANIC. But if there is any important development we will surely inform you.

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