Why is the Origin of the Corona Virus Still Unclear? Understanding the Origins of New Pathogens.

2023-06-11 20:30:34

Why is the origin of the virus that causes the Corona pandemic still unclear?

On May 5, 2023, WHO Director-General Tedros Gerbisos announced that Covid-19 was no longer an international public health emergency. This signaled the end of the acute phase of the pandemic, which has caused nearly 7 million confirmed deaths worldwide. But more than three years after Covid-19 was declared a pandemic, it is still not clear where the Corona virus came from and how it first reached humans.

And a press report on Sunday, June 10, indicated that there is evidence indicating that the Corona virus leaked from an institute in Wuhan, after experiments conducted in cooperation with the Chinese army in a secret project. The “Sunday Times” newspaper said that Chinese scientists had collected deadly pathogens in Wuhan before the outbreak of Corona in 2019.

For the global origin of MERS-CoV, animal origin is still the most likely

The origins of pathogens

Understanding the origins of new pathogens that can lead to pandemics is essential to prepare for the next emerging disease. In 2021, the World Health Organization established the Scientific Advisory Group on the Origins of New Pathogens (SAGO) from 27 countries specializing in epidemiology, virology and human infectious diseases. animal, environment, genomics, biosafety, and biosecurity.

On behalf of 27 members of the Scientific Advisory Group on the Origins of New Pathogens of the World Health Organization, virologist Maritje Venter in the Department of Medical Virology, University of Pretoria, South Africa, requested her research published in the journal Nature No. 618 on the first of this month, June 2023, from researchers in Worldwide that any sequence data from SARS-CoV-2-like viruses be made available in global genomic databases, and that researchers in China investigate the primary sources of animals and animal products that were present at the Huanan Seafood Market prior to its closure on January 1, 2020. It also demanded access to data or documents related to any possible biocontainment breaches or about occupational risks among laboratory workers or field investigators from China and other countries working on SARS-like viruses.

In March 2023, new sequence data released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as an independent analysis of metagenomics data by international scientists, evaluated wastewater samples as well as swabs and animal samples collected at the Huanan Seafood Market in December ( December) 2019 The data indicated that a group of animal species besides those included in the March 2021 report were present in the market. Although the data does not identify a specific animal species that was responsible for the first human case of COVID-19, it does indicate Different species of animals as potential intermediate hosts.

In a previous study published in the journal Nature in Issue 616 on April 5, 2023, researchers led by Liu and his team from the National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention in China (CDC) collected 923 environmental samples after the market closed on January 1. 2020 and collected 457 samples of 18 animal species from the unsold contents of refrigerators and freezers, swabs from stray animals, and the contents of a fish tank. SARS-CoV-2 was detected in 73 environmental samples using a technique called Real-Time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Viruses were not isolated from any of the animals examined and the nucleotides of the viruses from the market matched 99.99% to 100% with nucleotides of human isolates RNA sequencing analysis of SARS-CoV-2 positive environmental samples also showed an abundance of different vertebrate genera on the market.

This study provided information about the distribution and prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in the Huanan Seafood Market during the early stages of the outbreak.

Trace the origin of the virus

The origin of SARS-CoV-2 virus remains elusive after the pandemic that lasted for more than 3 years although scientists around the world are making great efforts by experimenting with studying many other infectious pathogens. Tracing the origin is a time-consuming and methodical work, as the putative origins of many infectious disease pathogens are still debated, including SARS and HIV.

From a macro perspective for the global origin of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) an animal origin is still the most likely as there could be a natural host which may or may not require intermediate animals however based on the evidence currently available there is no definitive conclusion for both natural and intermediate animals SARS-CoV-2 so far.

Based on current scientific logic and globally available evidence, the many hypotheses and conclusions related to the origins of SARS-CoV-29 contained in previous joint reports between the World Health Organization and China are scientific and objective, that is, tracing is a scientific issue that requires scientific evidence and logical reasoning, and tracing the origin of the virus may be elusive. Nevertheless, it is believed that the experience accumulated in studies on the virus will shed light on the prevention and control of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases in the future.