New Covid? China's Batwoman Warns Outbreak, "Highly Risky" (Image:www.pixabay.com)
Acclaimed Chinese virologist who is famously known as the “batwoman”, recently issued a serious warning about the possibility of a potential outbreak of a new coronavirus in the future.
Shi Zhengli, who has an extensive research expertise on animals, issued an alarming warning of a new pandemic outburst, and said that it is “highly likely” that another coronavirus will emerge in the future. She stressed the matter through a latest scholarly paper co-authored with her colleagues, published in July.
Ms Zhengli and her team from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, according to reports, conducted an evaluation of 40 different coronavirus species to assess their potential for spillover into human populations.
The result was shocking as half of the species considered for the evaluation emerged to be categorised as “highly risky”. Among these, six had already caused diseases in humans, while evidence suggested that three had infected other animal species, says WION.
In the conclusion, the research states that “future disease emergence” is nearly certain, with a high likelihood of another coronavirus- outbreak.
Shi Zhengli is currently the director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), and is studying coronavirus for over 20 years. Ms Zhengli and her colleagues from the WIV published a report in July 2023, says the South China Morning Post(SCMP).
According to Times of India, the study was based on an analysis of viral traits, including population, genetic diversity, host species, and any previous history of zoonosis or infectious disease that has jumped from a non-human animal to humans.
The research also detected major hosts of the pathogen, including natural hosts like bats and rodents, or possible intermediate hosts including camels, civets, pigs or pangolin.
The team is actively monitoring the outbreak possibilities and developed quick and sensitive testing tools to detect the highly-risk virus as soon as possible.
According to Economic Times, it was recently Ms Zhengli”s paper gained a significant traction on Chinese social media, coinciding with a decision by US federal agencies to prohibit funding for the Wuhan Institute of Virology for the next decade. Some US officials accused the WIV for engaging in high risk experiments with bat coronaviruses, and fueled suspicion that the Covid-19 pandemic originated from a Chinese laboratory.
The coronavirus identified in 2019, SARS-CoV-2, has caused a pandemic of respiratory illness, called COVID-19. The world hasn”t not yet come over the fears it spread while claiming the lives of over 4.5 million people and infecting more than 230 million individuals worldwide.
