The continuing 2019-nCoV epidemic threat of novel coronaviruses to global health — The latest 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China

By D. Hui, Esam I Azhar, T. Madani, F. Ntoumi, R. Kock, O. Dar, G. Ippolito, T. McHugh, Z. Memish, Christian Drosten and 2 more. International Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2020

3,481 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The city of Wuhan in China is the focus of global attention due to an outbreak of a febrile respiratory illness due to a coronavirus 2019-nCoV. In December 2019, there was an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan, Hubei province in China, with an epidemiological link to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market where there was also sale of live animals. Notification of the WHO on 31 Dec 2019 by the Chinese Health Authorities has prompted health authorities in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan to step up border surveillance, and generated concern and fears that it could mark the emergence of a novel and serious threat to public health (WHO, 2020a; Parr, 2020). The Chinese health authorities have taken prompt public health measures including intensive surveillance, epidemiological investigations, and closure of the market on 1 Jan 2020. SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, avian influenza, influenza and other common respiratory viruses were ruled out. The Chinese scientists were able to isolate a 2019-nCoV from a patient within a short time on 7 Jan 2020 and perform genome sequencing of the 2019-nCoV. The genetic sequence of the 2019-nCoV has become available to the WHO on 12 Jan 2020 and this has facilitated the laboratories in different countries to produce specific diagnostic PCR tests for detecting the novel infection (WHO, 2020b). The 2019-nCoV is a β CoV of group 2B with at least 70% similarity in genetic sequence to SARS-CoV and has been named 2019-nCoV by the WHO. SARS is a zoonosis caused by SARS-CoV, which first emerged in China in 2002 before spreading to 29 countries/regions in 2003 through a travel-related global outbreak with 8,098 cases with a case fatality rate of 9.6%. Nosocomial transmission of SARS-CoV was common while the primary reservoir was putatively bats, although unproven as the actual source and the intermediary source was civet cats in the wet markets in Guangdong (Hui and Zumla, 2019). MERS is a novel lethal zoonotic disease of humans endemic to the Middle East, caused by MERS-CoV. Humans are thought to acquire MERS-CoV infection though contact with camels or camel products with a case fatality rate close to 35% while nosocomial transmission is also a hallmark (Azhar et al., 2019). The recent outbreak of clusters of viral pneumonia due to a 2019-nCoV in the Wuhan market poses significant threats to international health and may be related to sale of bush meat derived from wild or captive sources at the seafood market.

Subfields: Ecology, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/18aa4b14a1cc7e1cf0aa665d60192b3338d23548

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Citations in the corpus

• The 2019‐new coronavirus epidemic: Evidence for virus evolution (2020, background): “To date, a total of 1975 pneumonia cases have been confirmed in China (the State Council Information Office in Beijing, capital of China, 26 January 2020).(6,7) Animal to human transmission is considered the origin of epidemics, as many patients declared to have visited a local fish and wild animal ”
• Prevalence of comorbidities and its effects in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2020, background): “Only a few days later, Chinese health authorities confirmed that this cluster was associated with a Novel Coronavirus 1 of them had comorbidities.”
• Beneficial Outcomes of Omega-6 and Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids on Human Health: An Update for 2021 (2021, background): “In fact, the conversion efficiency of ALA is low in human adults; it estimated 623 that only 5% of ALA is converted to EPA and less than 1% to DHA [198].”
• COVID-19 infection: Origin, transmission, and characteristics of human coronaviruses (2020, neutral): “According to the evolutionary tree, SARS-CoV-2 lies close to the group of SARS-coronaviruses [37,38] (Fig.”
• Analysis of factors associated with disease outcomes in hospitalized patients with 2019 novel coronavirus disease (2020, background): “, pneumonia) caused by a novel coronavirus.([1,2]) Clinical investigation of confirmed cases and cases under observation has shown that the number of patients with no history of exposure to theHuanan Seafood Market has been rapidly increasing.”
• Emerging 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Pneumonia (2020, background): “Different from both MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV, 2019- nCoV is the seventh member of the family of coronaviruses that infect humans (10).”
• Ribavirin, Remdesivir, Sofosbuvir, Galidesivir, and Tenofovir against SARS-CoV-2 RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp): A molecular docking study (2020, background): “The COVID-19 pneumonia is suspected of having originated in a seafood market, with an unknown animal being responsible for the emergence of the novel virus [2].”
• Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health and Quality of Life among Local Residents in Liaoning Province, China: A Cross-Sectional Study (2020, background): “As these data indicate, China has been severely affected by the COVID-19, which has been a major public health disaster [4].”
• Clinical features and obstetric and neonatal outcomes of pregnant patients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: a retrospective, single-centre, descriptive study (2020, background): “[1] [2] [3] Deep sequencing analysis from lower respiratory tract samples indicated a novel coronavirus that was later named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).”
• Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): current status and future perspectives (2020, neutral): “The genetic sequence of SARSoV-2 is ≥70% similar to that SARS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2 is caable of using the same cell entry receptor (ACE2) as SARS-CoV o infect humans [25 , 26] .”
• Clinical and CT features in pediatric patients with COVID‐19 infection: Different points from adults (2020, neutral): “develop to severe stage.(7) The lack of children samples in the previously reported studies may be related to the children staying at home during the Spring Festival holiday and having less contact with the source of infection.”