People wear masks in the Mass Transit Railway in Hong Kong, China. (May James/Echoes Wire/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="Since the new coronavirus emerged little over a month ago, experts have wondered where it came from and how deadly it could be.” data-reactid=”31″>Since the new coronavirus emerged little over a month ago, experts have wondered where it came from and how deadly it could be.
The first human to have caught the virus is thought to have done so at a seafood and live animal market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, capital of Hubei province.
Of the six coronavirus strains previously known to infect humans, the new one initially appeared most genetically similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), which killed 774 people during its 2004 outbreak.
Scientists from Fudan University in Shanghai have since found it appears to be 89.1% genetically similar to “a group of Sars-like coronaviruses”.
With Sars having started in bats, this suggests the nocturnal creatures may also be responsible for the new coronavirus, which has killed at least 361 people in China so far.
View photos
Security staff check on the temperature of students entering a university n Manila, Philippines, as public fear over the new Ccronavirus grows. (Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="Authorities have confirmed 17,485 cases of the new coronavirus in mainland China alone, according to John Hopkins University.” data-reactid=”57″>Authorities have confirmed 17,485 cases of the new coronavirus in mainland China alone, according to John Hopkins University.
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="The Lancet journal has reported, however, that 75,000 people could have battled the infection just in Wuhan.” data-reactid=”58″>The Lancet journal has reported, however, that 75,000 people could have battled the infection just in Wuhan.
Most of those who initially became ill worked at or visited the market, which was promptly shut.
The Fudan scientists analysed one of the workers, a 41-year-old man who was admitted to hospital on 26 December after battling a fever, tight chest and cough for a week.
A “cluster” of patients were first reported to the World Health Organziation on 31 December.
A “lung sample” taken from the worker allowed the virus – called 2019-nCoV – to be genetically screened, revealing its similarity to Sars.
“The identification of multiple Sars-like-coronaviruses in bats led to the idea these animals act as the natural reservoir hosts of these viruses,” the scientists wrote in the journal Nature.
Another coronavirus strain is Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers), which killed 858 during its 2012 outbreak.
Mers is also thought to have originated in bats, with camels being the intermediate host.
Not all experts are convinced by the role of snakes in 2019-nCoV’s outbreak, however.
Speaking when the Peking University results were released, Professor Paul Hunter of the University of East Anglia said: “It is still not known with certainty and it may never be definitively proved.
“There are initial, although contested, reports the virus has already been detected in both bats and snakes, and the strains in both bats and snakes are similar to each other, and to the strains from human cases.
“There is still much more to find out about the virus and there is a real possibility the exact origin may not be found.
“The big question is no longer where it came from, but how and where it is spreading in human populations.”
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="Coronaviruses are “RNA viruses”, which means they “mutate all the time”, Yahoo UK reported.” data-reactid=”93″>Coronaviruses are “RNA viruses”, which means they “mutate all the time”, Yahoo UK reported.
In simple terms, RNA is a “precursor” to the more well-known DNA.
Exposure to live animals at the market likely enabled the virus to “jump” from its origin species into humans.
View photos
A woman wears a face mask in Manila, Philippines. (Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)
Like all coronaviruses, the new strain initially causes flu-like symptoms.
China’s National Health Commission confirmed the virus can spread person-to-person, via sneezing, coughing or shaking contaminated hands.
In the most severe cases, victims are succumbing to pneumonia.
This comes about when a respiratory infection causes the alveoli (air sacs) in the lungs to become inflamed and filled with fluid or pus, according to the American Lung Association.
The lungs then struggle to draw in air, resulting in reduced oxygen in the bloodstream.
Pneumonia is usually caused by bacteria, which tend to respond to antibiotics.
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="When a virus is to blame, pneumonia may be treated via “antiviral medication”, according to the American Lung Association.” data-reactid=”125″>When a virus is to blame, pneumonia may be treated via “antiviral medication”, according to the American Lung Association.
Some Ontario doctors have started offering a free shot that can protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus while Quebec will begin its immunization program next month.
The new shot called Nirsevimab gives babies antibodies that provide passive immunity to RSV, a major cause of serious lower respiratory tract infections for infants and seniors, which can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
Ontario’s ministry of health says the shot is already available at some doctor’s offices in Ontario with the province’s remaining supply set to arrive by the end of the month.
Quebec will begin administering the shots on Nov. 4 to babies born in hospitals and delivery centers.
Parents in Quebec with babies under six months or those who are older but more vulnerable to infection can also book immunization appointments online.
The injection will be available in Nunavut and Yukon this fall and winter, though administration start dates have not yet been announced.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
-With files from Nicole Ireland
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.
Since January, health officials have confirmed 39 new polio cases in Pakistan, compared to only six last year, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.
The new nationwide drive starts Oct. 28 with the aim to vaccinate at least 32 million children. “The whole purpose of these campaigns is to achieve the target of making Pakistan a polio-free state,” he said.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Most of the new polio cases were reported in the southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province, following by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.
The locations are worrying authorities since previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government in September suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. Authorities in Pakistan have said that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country.
The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy this June for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, according to WHO.
Health officials in Pakistan say they want the both sides to conduct anti-polio drives simultaneously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the judges who issued that ruling.
“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”
The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”
Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.
If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.
Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.
The proposed rule would not impact those on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.
