The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Corona origin really in China? Evidence of very early cases in Europe - WHO team is now investigating spread

2020-08-25T09:34:35.574Z


The corona virus has long spread undetected in China. But there were early cases in Europe too. A team of researchers is now investigating the virus's trails.


The corona virus has long spread undetected in China. But there were early cases in Europe too. A team of researchers is now investigating the virus's trails.

+

Signs of a coronavirus infection can be detected on a lung scan. A study in Alsace, France now shows how early the virus really broke out in Europe. (Archive image)

© Sebastian Gollnow / dpa / picture alliance

  • Lung images in Alsace , France show signs of coronavirus in a patient from November 2019
  • Probably the coronavirus spread *undiscovered in Europe from November
  • A WHO research team is now supposed to find the exact origin of the virus . It's probably not in Wuhan.

Colmar - A milky-white sheen could give it away: The picture of a flu patient in Alsace-Lorraine from November 16, 2019 can be seen in the news. Probably one of the first coronavirus patients in Europe and not the only one. Radiologist Michel Schmitt explains to the German daily news that many flu cases appeared to him in retrospect. At the Albert-Schweizer Hospital in Colmar, Alsace, he examined around 2,500 lung scans from August 2020 and found what he was looking for: He found strong signs of several early coronavirus * infections. A test also shows that all those affected have developed antibodies against the coronavirus. Does the virus actually come from France ? Of course, this is not a sure proof. After all, the patients could have been infected in the meantime.

Mystery of the origin of the coronavirus - early cases outside of China as early as 2019

The first coronavirus cases were discovered in Wuhan, China . Here, too, numerous cases remained undetected for the time being. For a long time it had been assumed that the coronavirus did not reach France and all of Europe until much later. But not only in France , studies in other countries are now assuming much earlier coronavirus numbers in the second half of 2019. In Italy and Brazil , for example, the pathogen was found in old wastewater samples, as reported by the Tagesschau. But the date of origin is also being estimated earlier and earlier in China. As the newspaper South China Morning Post reported a few months ago, the researchers there are currently assuming an origin between October 6 and December 11 .

Where and when? In China, researchers are looking for the origin of the coronavirus

The suspected origin of the corona virus remains in Europe , despite early figures , still China or a neighboring country. The fast transfer to Europe is not a surprise, however. Even Cambridge researcher Peter Forster stressed to the evening news , "showed Documented, later cases as quickly travelers could bring pathogens to other regions." Furthermore, southern China is assumed to be the more precise origin of the virus . From here, the corona virus is said to have spread to Wuhan - unexpectedly quickly to Europe.

Evolutionary origins of the SARS-CoV-2 sarbecovirus lineage responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic - The lineage giving rise to SARS-CoV-2 has been circulating unnoticed in bats for decades
By Maciej Boni @arambaut @robertson_lab @LemeyLab et al. https://t.co/hzfyxkD0mw

- Alfons López Tena (@alfonslopeztena) July 30, 2020

China: Bats or pangolins are believed to have transmitted the virus

The novel coronavirus is an RNA virus. This means that it consists of the biomolecule ribonucleic acid . How the genome of the virus has changed can provide information about the origin of the pandemic. Researchers are studying these changes to determine where and when the coronavirus originated. One assumes a zoonosis , a transmission from animals to humans. Various studies have already established that transmission of bats and pangolins is likely.

WHO sends research team to China: detective work

Research is being carried out on the corona virus worldwide. A new team of researchers from the World Health Organization (WHO) is now to find out more details in southern China in order to finally determine the zoonotic origin of the coronavirus . Peter Forster and his colleagues are meanwhile investigating the exact migration routes of the virus , i.e. when and how quickly the pathogen has spread where. So far, the virus has not yet been found in the wild in a wild animal without human contact.

. @ WHO experts will travel to #China this weekend to work together with their Chinese counterparts to prepare scientific plans for identifying the zoonotic source of # COVID19. The experts will develop the scope and terms of reference for a WHO-led international mission.

- Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) July 7, 2020

For a long time, the market in Wuhan was assumed to be the place of origin, but a Chinese laboratory that studies zoonosis in bats is also the center of public conspiracy theoriesand become criticism . Much more likely, however, is a bat reservoir in the south of the country as the origin of the pandemic. So far, however, there is no more precise evidence. The WHO team should change that now. It is about "detective work", said WHO Director Michael Ryan in Geneva after the announcement of the new research team in July.

While the coronavirus numbers are rising again in Europe, concerns about heading for a second wave are also increasing in Bavaria. Meanwhile, the next virus is raging in China. (vs) 

* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.

List of rubric lists: © Sebastian Gollnow / dpa / picture alliance

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2020-08-25

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.