16 - Coronaviruses Flashcards
Four genera of coronaviruses
- alphacoronavirus
- betacoronavirus
- deltacoronavirus
- gammacoronavirus
Important coronaviruses & their genera
- Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (alpha)
- Severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV (SARS-CoV) (beta)
- Middle East respiratory syndrome CoV (MERS-CoV) (beta)
- SARS-CoV-2 (beta)
Subgenus of betacoronaviruses, animal reservoir, routes of human infection
Sarbecoviruses
Bats (rhinolocus or horseshoe bats) ~ 100 spp
2 routes:
- direct contact w bats
- contact w mammalian species infected w virus (e.g. civet cats, camel)
Coronavirus genome?
Enveloped positive-strand RNA viruses
30-32 kb
Outbreak, symptoms and risk group of SARS
2003 in Guangdong China
Symptoms: headache, fever, dry cough, sore throat, shortness of breath
Risk group: >60 years old, other conditions
Transmission, intermediate host of SARS. Status?
Person to person
Droplets from sneezing, touching contaminated surfaces
Civet cats intermediate hosts
Last case in late 2003, extinct in humans
infected, fatality rate of SARS
> 8000 infected
774 deaths
9.5% fatatlity
MERS-CoV outbreak, what is it? Symptoms? Fatality rate? R0?
2012, still circulating
Respiratory disease in middle east
Symptoms: fever, cough, breathing difficulties, vomiting
34% fatality rate
R0 = 2-5
Similarities and differences between SARS and MERS
Both originated in bats
SARS = bats to civet cats to humans
MERS = bats to camels to humans
Zoonotic diseases transmitted by bats
- rabies
- histoplasmosis
- marburg hemorrhagic fever
- Nipah
- SARS
- Ebola
What is the bat virome
19 families of mammalian viruses identified in analysis of 40 bat species in China
Large majority were coronaviruses
What makes bats dangerous hosts
They harbor viruses with few clinical signs of disease
Describe the 1918 H1N1 PANDEMIC
Spanish flu
500 x 10^6 infected
~50 million deaths worldwide
Affected young adults
Life expectancy declined by 10 years in US
Origins of Spanish Flu
Likely not Spain
During WW1. media censored news about flu. Except in Spain, where cases (infection, dead) were reported and publicized
Origin(s) unclear: US? Britain? China?
H1N1 deaths in Canada
30,000-50,000
Spanish flu response difference in Philadelphia vs St Louis
Philly: Did not take action for 2 weeks after first case, had a city-wide parade. Numbers were high
St Louis: closed theatres, schools, banned public gatherings two days after first case. Numbers were low
What is ProMED
Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases
Largest publicly available system providing global reporting on infectious disease outbreaks (measles, dengue, zika, FMD, COVID)
Where do we speculate COVID-19 originated
Wuhan, China in a market selling wild animals or a lab escape from Wuhan Institute of Virology (CoV research)