to water(Pm). The coronavirus responsible for the current epidemic of respiratory diseases belongs at the taxonomic level to the same virus species as the causative agent of the SARS outbreak in 2002/2003: This is confirmed by sequence analyzes carried out by Prof. John Ziebuhr from the Institute of Medical Virology at the Justus Liebig University Gießen (JLU) was involved. Due to the close phylogenetic relationship to the other viruses of this species, the “new” virus is now officially assigned to this species and named “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2” (short: SARS-Coronavirus 2, SARS-CoV-2). Ziebuhr has headed the Coronaviridae study group of the International Committee for Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) since 2014, which is responsible for the analysis and taxonomic classification of all newly discovered coronaviruses.
course of infection
can be different
“It is extremely important to emphasize that the genetic similarity of the two viruses – the SARS coronavirus from 2003 and the now circulating SARS coronavirus 2 – in no way allows the conclusion that the two viruses are comparable in infections in humans or even behave identically, “emphasizes Ziebuhr. “The clinical course of SARS-CoV-2 infections, the transmissibility of the virus and the virulence properties can even differ significantly from one another. The close genetic relationship therefore says nothing about the actual risk from the virus.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on February 11 this year that the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 was named COVID-19. In just two decades, SARS-CoV-2 has again spread to humans as a SARS-CoV-like virus.
This supports the assumption that certain variants of this species are particularly capable of leaping from their natural hosts in various bat species – possibly with the participation of previously unknown intermediate hosts – to humans and then spreading from person to person.
“Future research activities should therefore not be limited to individual viruses that are pathogenic to humans, but should also take a look at the entire virus species, including its numerous variants, in various other host animals,” Ziebuhr describes another conclusion that the scientists draw from their study. The species “SARS” also includes a large number of other coronaviruses from mammals, such as bats.
Source: Gießener Allgemeine
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