How do we know it's a new coronavirus?
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention dispatched a team of scientists to Wuhan to gather information about the new disease and perform testing in patients, hoping to isolate the virus. Their work, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Jan. 24, examined samples from three patients. Using an electron microscope, which can resolve images of cells and their internal mechanics, and studying the genetic code, the team were able to visualize and genetically identify the novel coronavirus.
Understanding the genetic code helps researchers in two ways: It allows them to create tests that can identify the virus from patient samples, and it gives them potential insight into creating treatments or vaccines.
The Peter Doherty Institute in Melbourne, Australia, was able to identify and grow the virus in a lab from a patient sample. They announced their discovery on Jan. 28. This is seen as one of the major breakthroughs in developing a vaccine and provides laboratories with the capability to both assess and provide expert information to health authorities and detect the virus in patients suspected of harboring the disease.
How does the corona virus spread?
This is one of the major questions researchers are still working hard to answer. The first infections were potentially the result of animal-to-human transmission, but confirmation that human-to-human transmission was obtained in late January. As the virus has spread, local transmission has been seen across the world. Some of the most at-risk people are those that work in healthcare.
"The major concern is hospital outbreaks, which were seen with SARS and MERS coronaviruses," said Raina MacIntyre, a professor of global biosecurity at the University of New South Wales, Australia. "Meticulous triage and infection control is needed to prevent these outbreaks and protect health workers."
WHO says the virus can move from person to person via:
A handful of viruses, including MERS, can survive for periods in the air after being sneezed or coughed from an infected individual. Although recent reports suggest the novel coronavirus may be transmitted in this way, the Chinese Center for Diseases Control and Prevention have reiterated there is no evidence for this. Writing in The Conversation on Feb. 14, virologists Ian Mackay and Katherine Arden explain "no infectious virus has been recovered from captured air samples."
Further research has shown SARS-CoV-2 may linger in the air for extended periods of time, which is particularly notable for health workers. It's estimated the virus can stay suspended in the air for a period of about 30 minutes. Social distancing measures become ever more important here because only those close to infected individuals are expected to be exposed to large quantities of the virus in the air.
