China ‘must find source’ after identifying Wuhan pneumonia as new virus from Sars family
- New strain is found in 15 of the patients from Wuhan
- Experts urge need for further investigation after some of the 59 people reported infected were traced to a seafood market
A top official at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told state news agency Xinhua on Thursday that laboratory tests had identified the new virus and the whole genome sequence had been obtained.
Fifteen patients in Wuhan, Hubei province, had tested positive for the virus, which showed “typical coronavirus morphology”, according to Xu Jianguo, director of the CDC’s National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, who headed a group of experts to identify the illness.
“The pathogen of these unexplained cases of viral pneumonia was initially identified as a new type of coronavirus,” he said, adding that initial identification needed to be followed up with further research.
Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that cause diseases varying in severity from the common cold to the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars). Of the six previously known human coronaviruses, four were common and caused only minor respiratory symptoms similar to those of a cold. The other two are Sars, which killed more than 700 people worldwide after originating in China, and Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers), which has killed more than 850 around the world since 2012.
