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发帖数: 43926 | 1 【 以下文字转载自 Military 讨论区 】
发信人: colour (可乐), 信区: Military
标 题: Nature comment on Wuhan virus
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Thu Jan 23 11:15:27 2020, 美东)
要点：
1. 这个virus还有很多未知的东西，需要public health, biological science
community合作。
2. Nature暗示希望尽快有research paper on Wuhan coronavirus，而且强调发到
biorXiv/arXiv不影响在Nature publish。
3. 鼓励中国政府的应对。
全文如下：
Stop the Wuhan virus
Vigilance, preparedness, speed, transparency and global coordination are now
crucial to stopping a new infectious disease from becoming a global
emergency.
As hundreds of millions of people in China take to the roads, railway and
skies to be with their families for the new year holidays, authorities in
the country and around the world have mounted an enormous operation to track
and screen travellers from Wuhan in central China.
This follows the outbreak of a mysterious pneumonia-like coronavirus, first
reported on the last day of December 2019, that has so far claimed six lives
in China. The World Health Organization is deciding whether to declare the
situation an international public-health emergency.
The virus has been spreading. On 21 January, as Nature went to press, there
were almost 300 reported cases — seven times the figure stated five days
earlier. Over the past week, authorities in South Korea, Thailand and Japan
have also reported cases. Researchers at Imperial College London who have
modelled the outbreak on the basis of estimates of travel out of Wuhan say
the virus might have infected as many as 1,700 people.
The virus, which still lacks a formal name, is being called 2019-nCOV. It is
a relative of both the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and
the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) viruses. People with the virus
report a fever along with other symptoms of lower-respiratory infection such
as a cough or breathing difficulties. The first people infected in China
are understood to have caught the virus in one of Wuhan’s live animal and
seafood markets — probably from an animal. Some 95% of the total cases,
including those in Japan, South Korea and Thailand, also involved people who
had been to Wuhan.
The virus has not been found in humans before and knowledge of how it is
spread is still evolving. Last week, government officials and researchers in
China who are tracking the virus told Nature they didn’t think it spreads
readily from human to human, at least not as fast as SARS. But this view is
being revised following the intervention of SARS specialist Zhong Nanshan.
After a visit to Wuhan on 20 January, Zhong, who directs the State Key
Laboratory of Respiratory Disease in Guangzhou, confirmed that 14 medical
workers had been infected by one virus carrier, raising concern that some
people might be ‘super-spreaders’ of the virus. Stopping the further
spread of the disease out of Wuhan, possibly by banning infected people from
leaving Wuhan, has to be a top priority, he said.
China’s health authorities and the government have been moving quickly.
Also on 20 January, the national broadcaster reported that president Xi
Jinping had ordered that the virus be “resolutely contained”, and Premier
Li Keqiang announced a steering group to tackle disease spread. At the
beginning of the month, local authorities in Wuhan closed and disinfected
the animal market, and health authorities have reported the results of their
disease surveillance efforts.
Researchers, too, have had a crucial role, in publishing and sharing genome
sequences. Four different research groups sequenced the genomes of six virus
samples — and analyses of all six agree that the virus is a relative of
SARS. Researchers are to be commended for making sequence data available,
and they should continue to do so. (Release of such data, as well as
deposition of manuscripts on preprint servers, will not affect the
consideration of papers submitted to Nature.)
As China’s government has recognized, the authorities fumbled in their
response to SARS, which spread globally, killing more than 770 people in
2002–03. Fifteen per cent of those infected died, a rate that seems much
higher than that of the current outbreak — at least from what is known so
far. In contrast to SARS, the response this time has been faster, more
assured and more transparent.
But there is still much to do, and quickly. The virus’s original source
must be confirmed — something that is proving difficult. Researchers have
found virus traces in swabs taken from the animal market. The authorities,
rightly, made closing and sterilizing the market their first priority, but
in their rush to do so they might have missed a chance to test the animals.
In the case of SARS, we now know that bats transmitted the virus to other
animals, which then passed it to humans. Other questions include confirming
the method of transmission for new cases, as well as understanding the virus
’s ability to cause serious illness. Virus genomes from infected people
will need to be sequenced continually to understand the extent to which the
virus is evolving.
China’s health authorities did well to act more quickly than in the past.
Now, they must continue to report what they know and what more they are
uncovering. The emerging situation requires global coordination and
leadership from the World Health Organization, with the support of public-
health agencies worldwide. Researchers must work fast, collaboratively and
transparently to address the key research questions. The world has had
plenty of practice with SARS and avian flu — we should know what to do.
Around 7 million people are preparing to fly from China to 400 cities in 100
countries to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Now is the time to stop this
outbreak spiralling into a global health emergency.
Nature 577, 450 (2020)
link: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00153-x?WT.ec_id=NATURE-
20200123&utm_source=nature_etoc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20200123&sap-
outbound-id=BF96C33CCD9B62D2A07FEA3F49A61AF2D02F03C8&mkt-key=
005056B0331B1ED889C2C661977AD073 |
