In China, the wildlife trade is thriving, driven by the increased demands for luxury goods and traditional medicine. But there is real concern about the threat of diseases that can cross over to humans.
The prevention of future pandemics requires examining viral family trees.
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As ready as you are to be done with COVID-19, it’s not going anywhere soon. A historian of disease describes how once a pathogen emerges, it’s usually here to stay.
Epidemiological data suggests that 80% of COVID-19 cases can be traced to just 20% of those infected with SARS-CoV-2.
Brazilian scientist working on a vaccine at the Immunology laboratory of the Heart Institute (Incor) of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Sao Paulo.
Sebastiao Moreira/EPA
We don’t have vaccines for the Sars, Mers or the common cold. But that doesn’t mean scientists won’t crack it this time.
South Africans practise social distancing while they queue outside a supermarket in Hillbrow, Johannesburg during the country’s lockdown.
Photo by Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images
University of Pittsburgh researchers are developing a vaccine patch for COVID-19 that is as easy to apply as a Band-Aid.
Coronaviruses get their name from the crown, or corona, of spikes that adorn the outer surface of the virus, as seen on this illustration of a highly magnified virus.
(U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
There’s no evidence the new coronavirus is airborne. It appears to spread by larger droplets, direct contact and contaminated surfaces or objects.
A horseshoe bat chasing a moth. Horseshoe bats were the source of SARS. Scientists consider bats to be a possible source of coronavirus.
DE AGOSTINI PICTURE LIBRARY / Contributor
Some of the world’s worst diseases have come from animals. Bats, cows, camels and horses have all contributed. Now, scientists are working to know which animal introduced the new coronavirus.
Wuhan University Sakura Castle, one of the oldest in China with the city in the backdrop. December 2018.
Howchou/Wikimedia
The strong crisis management in Wuhan will probe the capacity of the Chinese government to prepare adequately for pandemic and may test Xi’s rule.
A man wearing a surgical mask makes a child wear one outside a hospital where a student who had been in Wuhan is kept in isolation in Thrissur, Kerala state, India.
AP Photo
The World Health Organization declared the new coronavirus to be a public health emergency on Jan. 30, 2020. Does the action really change anything? An expert answers four questions.
Medical workers talk with a woman suspected of being ill with a coronavirus at a community health station in Wuhan, China, in January 2020.
Chinatopix via AP
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand