“Coronaviruses are types of viruses that typically affect the respiratory tract of mammals, including humans. They are associated with the common cold, pneumonia, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and can also affect the gut.” – Adam Felman, Assistant Editor at Medical News Today
“Coronaviruses are known to circulate in mammals and birds, and… nCoV-2019 originally came from bats, a proposal based on the similarity of its genetic sequence to those of other known coronaviruses.” – Nature Research
On Saturday Feb. 8, 2020 the coronavirus-death toll stands at 726 while infections have soared to 34, 872 in a month. Scientists are connecting the dots on the possible cause/s of the 2019-nCoV. The endangered scaly pangolin mammal has been fingered by researchers as the possible cause of the deadly coronavirus.
Medical scientists are scurrying around to identify the cause and develop a cure for the rampant coronavirus understood to be emanating from the city of Wuhang in China.
Thirty-seven (37) countries have been affected by coronavirus, according to the Medical News Today (MNT) Knowledge Center in an article written by Felman.
Causes of Coronavirus
There are different types of coronaviruses such as, but not limited to the more severe SARS, MERS-CoV (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), and the latest one, 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
It is largely reported that the spread of coronavirus is admittedly caused by droplets from coughing and sneezing, touching or shaking hands with infected persons or touching contaminated surfaces and/or objects and then touching your nose, eyes, or mouth. MNT stressed that “[o]n rare occasions, a coronavirus may spread through contact with feces”.
The 2018-nCoV common symptoms are “fever, breathlessness and cough” noticeable within two weeks.
It is highly suspected that the coronavirus at the epicenter of Wuhang was caused by wild-animal meat sold in China’s meat market. Quite effectively, China has imposed a ban on wild meat.
A Friday Feb. 7, 2020 article published on the Daily Maverick (DM) penned by Don Pinnock and Tiara Walter highlighted this sancinctly:
“China has temporarily placed a ban on the sale of wildlife and wildlife products, but this is the best reason to make the ban permanent.”
On the same piece, Pinnock and Walter cited researchers from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston who traced the cause of coronavirus to “pangolin meat”:
“The deadly novel coronavirus pandemic has been traced to pangolins, the world’s most trafficked and endangered mammal, [t]his had been confirmed by researchers at the South China Agricultural University.”
The Nature Research, an international weekly journal of science for Springer Nature, describes pangolins as “long-snouted, ant-eating mammals often used in traditional Chinese medicine”. In China, pangolin meat is a much-sought-after delicacy.
The New York Times emphasised the pangolin-effect based on the World Wildlife Fund, a charity leading organization in wildlife conservation and endangered species, by publishing that:
“although protected by international law, because its meat is considered a delicacy in countries such as China and its scales are used in traditional medicine.”
In Sep. 13, 2018, The Star, a Malaysian news website recognised in 2014 as one of the best in Asia by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), posted that:
“There is no scientific evidence showing that pangolin scales are effective as a treatment.”
The same article quoted Prof Lao Lixing, Director of HKU’s School of Chinese Medicine, saying: “Many herbal medicines have very similar functions to pangolin scales.”
According to The Guardian, “Pangolins may have spread coronavirus to humans.” However, by and large “[b]ats are known carriers of the latest strain of the disease,” the article reported. The article is supported by Nature Research says the study is not yet published in full but “plausible”.
The Nature Research quoted South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou indicating that:
“two of its researchers, Shen Yongyi and Xiao Lihua, have identified the pangolin as the potential source of nCoV-2019 on the basis of a genetic comparison of coronaviruses taken from the animals and from humans infected in the outbreak and other findings. The sequences are 99% similar… reported at a press conference on 7 February.”
Furthermore, The Guardian cited researchers who found that:
“A genetic analysis showed that the strain of the virus currently spreading among humans was 96% identical to that found in bats.”
Thinning resources
The World Health Organization (WHO) Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned of the potential high costs of the viral outbreak should countries of the world fail to rise up and pull funds to wrestle down and snuff out this airborne contagious virus.
WHO which has already declared the 2019-nCoV a global health emergency, said:
“To fight further spread of the new coronavirus outbreak in China and globally, and protect states with weaker health systems, the international community has launched a US$675 million preparedness and response plan covering the months of February through to April 2020.”
So much so China has embarked forthwith on a massive construction drive of two colossal hospitals to contain and limit the spread and carnage of the pandemic.
As far as containment relates, there is a “chronic shortage” of medical supplies like facial masks and staff in China at the moment. This poses a health hazard in and outside China as the country disparately grapple with the fatal outbreak.
There is a heart-rending concern about under-resourced countries that may battle to deal with the viral outbreak. Dr. Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, advanced that:
“My biggest worry is that there are countries today who do not have the systems in place to detect people who have contracted with the virus, even if it were to emerge.”
No Vaccine for Coronavirus
In the intervening period, WHO said that it will be “convening experts on drugs, vaccines to set research agenda”. Furthermore, it said:
“Experts will meet in Geneva from February 11-12 to set research and development priorities for coronavirus drugs, diagnostics and vaccines to combat the outbreak.”
As the people of the world come to terms with its terminal effects, it is now affecting more countries than anticipated. Currently, there is no vaccine to cure the viral disease.
With the 2019-nCoV death toll approaching the 800 mark as widely publicized on Feb. 8, the situation is tenuous and unpredictable. Although the rate at which the virus has been spreading shows a decline, the death-body count is peaking.
Censored Whistleblowing Medics
Speaking on Stephen Sackur’s HARDtalk on British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), a Chinese expat Ai Weiwei (an artist) living in England said:
There is nothing coming out of China that can be trusted as from government communications services and/or agents. I feel deeply very you have a state which never gives clear information where this disease comes from… They locked up eight (8) doctors who revealed the first incidents of the coronavirus… If you don’t let people walk in the streets, lock them up entirely. This is the first virus originally branded in China.
Li Wenliang, a Chinese doctor who warned authorities about coronavirus late last year, died Friday Feb. 7, 2020. Reports are aplenty that carried stories concerning threats of his arrest by the (Chinese) government.
The 34-year-old Wenliang was working at Wuhan Central Hospital when he contracted the coronavirus. Upon going public in December 2020, the BBC reported, he was told to desist from spreading lies.
Even so, upon hearing and confirming the death of the revered doctor, the The National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China Minister Ma Xiaowei has expressed condolences to the family of the deceased and praised his medical colleagues for their sterling work.
Precautionary Measures for Coronavirus
Hong Kong announced that it was going to quarantine visitors and/or anyone from mainland China in the wake of the coronavirus threat, reported AlJazeera.
United States of America (U.S.A.) Japan, Australia, England, France, South Korea, India and many others commissioned chartered aeroplanes to evacuate their citizens from the coronavirus-infested zone.
Dr. Patrick Tang, Division Chief of Pathology Sciences at Sidra Medicine, interviewed on AlJazeera on Thursday Feb. 05, 2020 said:
It may be more infectious than Sars. It is possible that it may be underreported and other affected people may not be aware yet. The danger lies where the virus keeps spreading across the world.”
As scientists scramble around for a breakthrough cure, China and the global citizenry will surely continue to battle the unyielding coronavirus pandemic many days to come. In the meantime, there is no refuge as it decimates China unabated.