Mystery Virus causing Severe Lung Disease in Wuhan, China

Health officials around the world are on high alert because as per media reports on Thursday, a mystery virus has infected more than 50 people to date in China’s Hubei Province’s Wuhan City. Virus Samples were collected from the patients and a top official from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has informed that the whole genome sequence of new virus had been identified to be a Coronavirus which belongs to a broad family of viruses, however, only six coronaviruses are known to infect people, the newly discovered virus would make it the seventh.

Earlier back in 2002, a coronavirus outbreak occurred in China which killed 774 out of the total 8,098 people infected, similarly, other coronaviruses discovered to infected people to date causes diseases varying in severity from the common cold to deadly SARS: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. China has taken measures to contain the disease and to minimize the risk of the bug spreading, infected people being treated in isolation and around 150 people in contact with the infected persons are also monitored.

Month: Current Affairs - January, 2020