Photo: Ng Han Guan / AP
There are many viruses that could be dangerous to humans in the future, but today the threat is only hypothetical, experts interviewed by RBC said.
“There are quite a lot of viruses that may be dangerous to humans in the future. These are influenza viruses of other animals, and coronaviruses of other biological species. To date, these are only candidates for overcoming the interspecies barrier. And it’s not worth focusing on just one, we have more pressing problems, ”Associate Professor of the Department of Infectious Diseases at RUDN University Sergey Voznesensky told RBC.
Wuhan scientists report new coronavirus
According to him, scientists studying the interspecies interaction of viruses should pay attention to this factor. Voznesensky called the threat of such infections to humans hypothetical.
The origin of all human viruses from animal viruses was also pointed out by Sergey Netesov, a molecular biologist, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, head of the laboratory of biotechnology and virology at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Novosibirsk State University. He clarified that in the wild there are several thousand species of such organisms.