Posted on 01/24/2020 10:29:27 PM PST by aquila48
As infectious disease specialists and epidemiologists race to contain the outbreak of the novel coronavirus centered on Wuhan, China, they’re getting backup that’s been possible only since the explosion in genetic technologies: a deep-dive into the DNA of the virus known as 2019-nCoV.
Analyses of the viral genome are already providing clues to the origins of the outbreak and even possible ways to treat the infection, a need that is becoming more urgent by the day: Early on Saturday in China, health officials reported 15 new fatalities in a single day, bringing the death toll to 41. There are now nearly 1,100 confirmed cases there.
Reading the DNA also allows researchers to monitor how 2019-nCoV is changing and provides a roadmap for developing a diagnostic test and a vaccine.
“The genetics can tell us the true timing of the first cases” and whether they occurred earlier than officials realized, said molecular biologist Kristian Andersen of Scripps Research, an expert on viral genomes. “It can also tell us how the outbreak started — from a single event of a virus jumping from an infected animal to a person or from a lot of animals being infected. And the genetics can tell us what’s sustaining the outbreak — new introductions from animals or human-to-human transmission.”
Scientists in China sequenced the virus’s genome and made it available on Jan. 10, just a month after the Dec. 8 report of the first case of pneumonia from an unknown virus in Wuhan. In contrast, after the SARS outbreak began in late 2002, it took scientists much longer to sequence that coronavirus. It peaked in February 2003 — and the complete genome of 29,727 nucleotides wasn’t sequenced until that April.
(Excerpt) Read more at statnews.com ...
A complete protocol for whole-genome sequencing of virus from clinical samples: Application to coronavirus OC43
This innovative approach allows to rapidly (1–2 days) obtain a consensus sequence directly from clinical samples loaded with as few as 50 genome copies per reaction. This method is of great interest during outbreak and can also be used as an inexpensive and convenient method in the lab.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0042682219300728
Here is a live map of the spreading of the infection.
https://3g.dxy.cn/newh5/view/pneumonia_peopleapp?from=timeline&isappinstalled=0
check if often for updates!
By Jan 2, 2020, 41 admitted hospital patients had been identified as having laboratory-confirmed 2019-nCoV infection. Most of the infected patients were men (30 [73%] of 41); less than half had underlying diseases (13 [32%]), including diabetes (eight [20%]), hypertension (six [15%]), and cardiovascular disease (six [15%]). Median age was 49.0 years (IQR 41.0–58.0). 27 (66%) of 41 patients had been exposed to Huanan seafood market. One family cluster was found.
Common symptoms at onset of illness were fever (40 [98%] of 41 patients), cough (31 [76%]), and myalgia or fatigue (18 [44%]); less common symptoms were sputum production (11 [28%] of 39), headache (three [8%] of 38), haemoptysis (two [5%] of 39), and diarrhoea (one [3%] of 38). Dyspnoea developed in 22 (55%) of 40 patients (median time from illness onset to dyspnoea 8.0 days (IQR 5.0 - 13.0]). 26 (63%) of 41 patients had lymphopenia. All 41 patients had pneumonia with abnormal findings on chest CT. Complications included acute respiratory distress syndrome (12 [29%]), RNAaemia (six [15%]), acute cardiac injury (five [12%]) and secondary infection (four [10%]). 13 (32%) patients were admitted to an ICU and six (15%) died. Compared with non-ICU patients, ICU patients had higher plasma levels of IL2, IL7, IL10, GSCF, IP10, MCP1, MIP1A, and TNF-alpha.
2019-nCoV caused clusters of fatal pneumonia with clinical presentation greatly resembling SARS-CoV. Patients infected with 2019-nCoV might develop acute respiratory distress syndrome, have a high likelihood of admission to intensive care, and might die. The cytokine storm could be associated with disease severity. More efforts should be made to know the whole spectrum and pathophysiology of the new disease.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30183-5/fulltext
Thanks for posting that
Another good source with updated info https://www.bmj.com/coronavirus
There’s plenty of reason to treat any of those Ebola cousins as potential crowd killers. Better to err on the side of caution.
Hanta Virus may be the closest thing that we have native to the US that people need to be aware of. Not an Ebola cousin but it’s dangerous. Spread by the droppings of deer mice and a couple of other rodents. No human to human transmission. Killed someone I knew, a very athletic 30 yr old woman. It’s hard to diagnose, doctors thought it was a severe flu.
It is when you modify it to be part of a binary payload.
The first payload infects humans readily and causes mild flu-like symptoms. The second payload is introduced to the host by the first payload and is responsible for the pneumonia that cause massive hemorrhaging of the lung tissues.
You have to describe it more to convince me.
LOL, no that is not correct.
I kind of got sucked into the periphery of studying viruses as two of my children became microbiologists doing genetic engineering and pharmacology
work with viruses.
Both worked in spacesuits, as much to protect contamination of the target as themselves.
The subject fascinates me so much that about two months ago as I was getting lots of immunizations for remote foreign travel, I began reading about the RNA viruses vs DNA viruses and all the different shapes and sizes using the Baltimore classifications.
My kids think I’m nuts, but when I feel a virus in a person, it is a separate swarm of consciousness that flows similar to a swarm of gnats in and around the person. It puzzles the heck out of me.
I have no idea where I’m going with it, if anywhere, but my level of scientific curiosity is through the roof. I know the solution is in the DNA transcription/replication process in an epigenetic way similar to methylation.
It beats crossword puzzles!
The numbers in their timeline are too low.
Here’s a map...
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
Try this http://www.virology.ws/course/ and the videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svlKm4S1M3Y
Yes. Exactly
Thanks...
I’m traveling on an overnight train and have a few extra hours. I don’t sleep much so I’ll watch it.
The link is much appreciated.
I’ve been taling quite a few clinical medicine classes on Coursera. John’s Hopkins, Duke, MIT...they are quality university/med school courses.
The body of knowledge is expanding so fast that it is fascinating.
I remember reading about that novel ACE Inhibitor effect years ago; I wondered then and wonder now if ARBs would have the same effect.
In a public letter to China’s top health authority, the National Health Commission, a doctor who claimed to be from a top hospital in Wuhan laid the blame for the serious nature of the coronavirus outbreak on the slow response by local health officials.
The doctor, who did not give his real name, said the numbers of patients infected with the disease had been growing since January 12 but the local health authority had failed to report new cases.
“These patients were not given proper quarantine nor medical treatment and they could travel in every corner of the city,” the doctor wrote. “Later, when we warned patients and the public to wear masks and avoid crowded areas, they didn’t take it seriously and thought we were exaggerating, and even some medical staff, including surgeons didn’t believe it and were not willing to take basic precautions.”
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