On the issue of the progress of pathogenic identification of the Wuhan unexplained viral pneumonia outbreak, the reporter learned today from the panel of experts on the preliminary assessment of pathogenic test results that as of 21:00 on January 7, 2020, the laboratory detected a novel coronavirus, obtained the full genome sequence of the virus, and detected a total of 15 cases of positive results for the novel coronavirus by nucleic acid detection methods, and isolated the virus from one positive patient sample. The virus showed a typical coronavirus morphology under electron microscopy.
The expert group concluded that the pathogen of this unexplained viral pneumonia case was initially determined to be a novel coronavirus.
The tissue laboratory used genome sequencing, nucleic acid detection, and virus isolation to perform pathogenic testing on the patient's alveolar lavage fluid, pharyngeal swab, blood, and other samples.
According to the panel, confirmation of the pathogen causing a particular epidemic disease is usually subject to the following points.
(1) The suspected pathogen must be found in both patients, and the pathogenic nucleic acid must be detectable in the patient's clinical sample.
(2) The pathogen can be successfully isolated from the patient's clinical specimen.
(3) The isolated pathogen can cause the same disease symptoms when it infects the host animal. A 4-fold increase in antibody titers to the pathogen in the patient's serum during recovery may help identify the pathogen.
The discovery of nucleic acid, genomic and antibody evidence of the pathogen from patients can be accomplished in a short period of time. Scientific studies such as isolation and pathogenicity identification of the pathogen can take several weeks. The development of specific drugs and vaccines for an emerging pathogen may take years to complete. The expert group concluded that the pathogen of this unexplained viral pneumonia case was initially determined to be a novel coronavirus, and the next step requires expert research and evaluation in conjunction with etiologic studies, epidemiologic investigations, and clinical manifestations.
Coronaviruses are a class of pathogens that mainly cause respiratory and intestinal diseases. These virus particles have many regularly arranged protrusions on the surface, and the whole virus particle resembles an imperial crown, hence the name "coronavirus". In addition to humans, coronaviruses can also infect pigs, cattle, cats, dogs, mink, camels, bats, rats, hedgehogs, and other mammals, as well as many species of birds. To date, there are six known human coronaviruses.
Four of these coronaviruses are more common in the population, are less pathogenic, and generally cause only mild respiratory symptoms similar to the common cold. The other two coronaviruses - severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, or SARS coronavirus and MERS coronavirus for short - can cause severe respiratory illness. The novel coronavirus causing this outbreak is different from the identified human coronaviruses, and further scientific research is needed to gain a better understanding of this virus.
