NOVOSIBIRSK, January 22. /TASS/. The spreading of a coronavirus that has led to pneumonia outbreak in China can be stopped within six months if diagnostic tools are developed quickly and employed while citizens are properly informed about the disease, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and head of the bionanotechnology, microbiology and virology laboratory at the Novosibirsk State University Sergei Netesov told TASS.
On Wednesday morning, China’s National Health Commission announced that 440 patients had contracted the disease with nine lethal cases. Later, People's Daily newspaper reported 473 pneumonia cases.
Russia’s Deputy Health Minister Sergei Krayevoy previously told TASS that the ministry had launched process to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus and is now engaged in talks with Chinese scientists to obtain biological material to proceed with the vaccine.
"When fighting the new coronavirus, it is necessary to take into account experience of countering previous outbreaks of diseases caused by coronavirus infections. The spreading of the disease can be curbed within six months. For instance, during the atypical pneumonia epidemic in 2003 the virus managed to spread so widely mainly due to initially low levels of awareness. For a similar situation not to happen again, not only means of diagnosis should be developed and employed but also tourist flows from and to China should be limited at least temporarily, while the outbreak centers should be subject to strict counter-epidemic measures and citizens should be widely informed about this dangerous disease and steps to prevent it," Netesov said, adding that the upcoming Lunar New Year celebrations might impede the fight against the virus as many people are set to travel within the country and overseas.
According to the scientist, it is the third outbreak of new viral pneumonias caused by spreading of new types of coronaviruses in the last twenty years. The first such outbreak took place in 2003 when bats were pinpointed as the source of the coronavirus that later spread to small mammals - African palm civets - and then it was contracted by people, with the virus gradually evolving and adapting to new hosts. The reason behind these developments was large-scale domestication of African palm civets. The second outbreak happened in Saudi Arabia in 2008-2012. Then, camels were primarily identified to carry the virus but later research found out that certain types of bats native to the country were the initial hosts. The virus detected this year is similar to its predecessor which gives grounds to believe that it is also transmitted by bats, Netesov emphasized.
Earlier, the Russian consumer watchdog, Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare, reported that its experts started monitoring the epidemiological situation from the very first days when the news about the virus emerged. In particular, additional measures boosting quarantine control on Russian border checkpoints were introduced, an algorithm of medical personnel actions was established when dealing with suspected coronavirus cases while medical institutions are placed under control over their readiness to accept patients from underprivileged territories.