A never-before-seen virus, detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, has claimed nine lives and infected hundreds of Chinese citizens with a pneumonia-like illness, according to China’s National Health Commission. It was first reported to the World Health Organization on Dec. 31, 2019 and has been under investigation since. WHO indicates there are still many unknowns, but Chinese scientists have linked the disease to a family of viruses known as “coronaviruses,” the same family as the deadly SARS and MERS viruses.
Scientists are yet to fully understand how destructive the new virus, dubbed 2019-nCoV, might be. Researchers and investigators are just beginning to understand where it originated, how it is transmitted, how far it has spread and what symptoms patients present with.
Here’s everything we know about the mystery virus and steps you can take to reduce your risk of coronavirus
What is a coronavirus?
Coronaviruses belong to a family of viruses known as Coronaviridae and look like spiked rings under an electron microscope. They are so named because of these spikes, which form a halo around their viral envelope.
Coronaviruses contain a strand of RNA within their envelope and cannot reproduce without getting inside living cells and hijacking the machinery found within. The spikes on their viral envelope help them bind to cells, which gives them a way in. It’s like blasting the door open with C4. Once inside they turn the cell into a virus factory, using its molecular conveyor belt to produce more viruses which are then shipped out. The virus progeny infect another cell and the cycle starts anew.
Typically, these types of viruses are found in animals ranging from livestock to household pets and wildlife such as bats. When they make the jump to humans they can cause fever, respiratory illness and inflammation in the lungs. In immunocompromised individuals, such as the elderly or those with HIV-AIDS, they can cause severe respiratory illness.
The causative agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome were extremely pathogenic coronaviruses, and were found to be easily transmitted from human to human. SARS infected more than 8,000 people and resulted in nearly 800 deaths, MERS almost 2,500 with over 850 deaths.
Where did the virus come from?
The virus appears to have originated in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, a Chinese city of over 11 million people approximately 650 miles south of Beijing. The market sells fish, as well as a panoply of other animal meats. However, it’s still unknown whether it emerged from an animal species like previous coronaviruses, SARS and MERS.
Markets have been implicated in the origin and spread of viral diseases in past epidemics and a large majority of the confirmed cases seen so far had been to the Huanan Seafood marketplace in recent weeks. The market seems like an integral piece of the puzzle, but researchers will need to undertake a range of experiments and testing to confirm the virus’ origin.
“Testing of animals in the Wuhan area, including sampling from the markets, will provide more information,” said Raina MacIntyre, a head of the biosecurity research program at the University of New South Wales’ Kirby Institute.
How many confirmed cases have been reported?
Four hundred forty cases have been confirmed as of Jan. 22. The bulk are in China, but cases have been confirmed in Thailand, Japan, South Korea and now the US, where a man in his 30s in Washington state presented with the disease at a local hospital.
A list of confirmed cases and their locations are below:
China: 440 confirmed cases
Thailand: 2 confirmed cases
Japan: 1 confirmed cases
South Korea: 1 confirmed case
US: 1 confirmed case
Australia: 1 suspected case
National authorities in China continue to monitor over 1,300 residents who attended the Wuhan market or have had prolonged contact with those presenting symptoms of the novel disease.
China’s National Health Commission said the virus is responsible for nine deaths as of Jan. 22. The first death was a 61-year-old man who had frequented the Wuhan market and had chronic liver disease and abdominal tumors. The second was a 69-year-old man who went to a hospital with severe damage to multiple organs.
A study, published by the Imperial College London on Jan. 17, estimates the total number of 2019-nCoV cases could be much higher than reported, with over 1,700 cases. The work, led by Neil Ferguson, calculated how far the virus is likely to spread based on its incubation period and the amount of travel in and out of Wuhan since it was first detected.
WHO’s full situation report was last updated on Jan. 21 but only includes data up to Jan. 20.
Understanding the genetic code also helps researchers in two ways: It allows them to create tests that can identify the virus from patient samples and gives them potential insight into creating treatments or vaccines.
How does the coronavirus spread?
This is one of the major questions researchers are working feverishly to answer. It’s unclear what animals may act as a reservoir for the virus and how much of a role the live animal markets play in its spread. There haven’t been reports of health officials and attendants contracting the disease, which seems to suggest human-to-human transmission is limited — but this is still being investigated.
“It does not appear to be highly contagious between humans at this stage, based on about 60 known symptomatic cases to date,” Macintyre said in a statement on Jan. 17.
The market, believed to be the epicenter of the spread, was shut down on Jan. 1. The World Health Organization has suggested that human-to-human transmission can’t be excluded at this stage, which could cause some concern for authorities looking to slow the disease.
The fact that some cases do not seem to be linked with the Huanan seafood market means we cannot exclude the possibility of limited human-to-human transmission.
— World Health Organization Western Pacific (@WHOWPRO) January 16, 2020
On Jan. 20, the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy reported health workers in China had been infected with the virus. This was a notable turning point in the previous SARS epidemic, as health workers moving between countries were able to aid the spread of the disease. It also confirms human-to-human transmission is likely, which could hamper efforts to contain the virus in the coming weeks.
“The major concern is hospital outbreaks, which were seen with SARS and MERS coronaviruses,” MacIntyre said. “Meticulous triage and infection control is needed to prevent these outbreaks and protect health workers.”
An electron microscopy image of the coronavirus which causes SARS.
Callista/Getty
What’s next?
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the WHO, will convene an emergency committee on Wednesday, Jan. 22 to ascertain whether this new virus constitutes a public health emergency.
“If WHO declares a public health emergency of international concern, it enables WHO greater powers for disease control using the International Health Regulations,” MacIntyre said.
The novel coronavirus causes similar symptoms to previously identified disease-causing coronaviruses. In currently identified patients, there seems to be a spectrum of illness: A large number experience mild pneumonia-like symptoms, while others have a much more severe response.
Patients present with:
Elevated body temperature
A dry cough
Shortness of breath or breathing difficulties.
As the disease progresses patients may also present with pneumonia, which inflames the lungs and causes them to fill with fluid which can be detected via X-ray, according to the WHO.
Is there a treatment for coronavirus?
Coronaviruses are notoriously hardy organisms. They’re effective at hiding from the human immune syste, and we haven’t developed any reliable treatments of vaccines that can eradicate them. In most cases, health officials attempt to deal with the symptoms.
That doesn’t mean vaccines are an impossibility, however. Chinese scientists were able to sequence the virus’ genetic code incredibly quickly, giving scientists a chance to study it and look for ways to combat the novel disease. According to CNN, researchers at the National Institute of Health are already working on a vaccine — though note it could be a year or more away from release.
Notably, SARS, which infected around 8,000 people and killed around 800 seemed to run its course and then mostly disappear. It wasn’t the vaccine that turned the tide on the disease but rather effective communication between nations and a range of tools that helped track the disease and its spread.
“We learnt that epidemics can be controlled without drugs or vaccines, using enhanced surveillance, case isolation, contact tracking, PPE and infection control measures,” MacIntyre said.
How to reduce your risk of coronavirus
With confirmed cases now seen in the US, Thailand, Japan, South Korea and potentially Australia, there is potential 2019-nCoV could be spreading much further afield. The WHO recommends a range of measures to protect yourself from contracting the disease based on good hand hygiene and good respiratory hygiene, in much the same way you would reduce the risk of contracting the flu.
A Twitter thread, developed by the WHO, is below.
This post was originally published on Jan. 19 and is updated as new information becomes available.
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
