Covid-19 was first detected in China in December of 2019 in Wuhan region. Thereon it spread to 212 countries rapidly infecting and killing millions worldwide. How and when it was discovered, detected, or first spread to humans remains a subject of mystery, controversial theories, allegations and denials.
When the world is yet to completely recover from the setbacks of Covid, Chineses scientists have now discovered as many as eight never-before seen viruses on Hainan tropical island off the southern coast of China.
Reportedly, all these eight viruses have the ability to repeat Covid-like situations and trigger a new pandemic if they were to ever cross the species barrier. But will they cross over to humans and more importantly, how likely are they to cross the barrier?
The discovery of the presence of 8 new viruses was made by the scientists when they were tasked with preparing the world for future pandemics. The research teams from Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College found the eight viruses, one of which belongs to SARS-CoV-2 variety. The samples were taken from 682 anal and throat swabs of 341 rodents in the Hainan Province of China.
A subgenre of SARS-CoV 2
The discovered viruses belong to 22 families including arenavirus, astrovirus, coronavirus, pestivirus, parvovirus, and papillomavirus. Of the viruses detected, one happens to be a new sub-genre of coronavirus named as CoV-HMU-1, found to be a betacoronavirus.
"The results expand our knowledge of viral classification and host range and suggest there are highly diverse, undiscovered viruses that have evolved independently in their unique wildlife hosts in inaccessible areas,' says the research paper.
"If these viruses cross the host barrier, they are highly possible to cause zoonosis," it adds. The findings have been published in the journal Virologica Sinica, a publication of the Chinese Society for Microbiology. The researchers have called for further experiments on the viruses to determine their exact effects on humans.
All the reports, now frequently making their way to mainstream media and publications, are a warning sign of the existence of countless pathogens, many of which possess the ability to cross over to humans.
Covid-19 not yet over
Interestingly, China's famous virologist Dr Shi Zhengli, from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, also known as Batwoman, is on the board of the publication Virologica Sinica. Co-incidentally, a 2023-study conducted by her has also warned that another Covid-like pandemic is very likely to appear in future.
The paper titled 'Assessment and sero-diagnosis for coronavirus with risk of human spillover' identifies 20 viruses to have a high risk for causing human outbreaks. Although the study was released in July in the journal Emerging Microbes and Infections, it gained traction on social media only last month.
