The current coronavirus, more precisely Covid-19, has been spreading around the world for more than three months. After a first death in mid-February, France took containment measures in March to cope with the advance of the virus. But where does the disease come from? Who contracted it first? And why does it have several names? Here’s what you need to know about the origins of the pandemic.
Where was she born ?
According to a bulletin published on January 12, 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO), the first cases were reported to it on December 31, 2019 by China. There were then 41 known cases of infection. The vast majority of these people worked or frequently visited the wholesale fish market in Huanan, located in the city of Wuhan in China, 850 kilometers west of Shanghai. A market closed by the Chinese authorities from January 1, 2020.
Also according to the bulletin published by the WHO, the appearance of the first symptoms for these patients began on December 8, 2019. More recently, the South China Morning Post revealed, however, that the first cases of infection would date from mid-November. The quest for the “patient zero”, the first human affected, is still ongoing.
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What animal does it come from?
Bat, pangolin … There are many hypotheses around the origin of the Covid-19. Since the start of scientific studies, many similarities have been noted between his virus and coronaviruses taken from bats. However, it could have been transmitted to humans by an intermediate animal. The snake hypothesis was quickly dismissed.
At the beginning of February, work carried out by a Chinese scientific team indicated that the pangolin, a mammal covered with scales and very popular in China, was the main “suspect”. In 2002-2003, the SARS epidemic (see below) had its origin in the civet, an animal itself contaminated by a bat. One thing is certain: the current Covid-19 is transmitted well from person to person, hence the need to follow the precautions indicated by the WHO and governments.
Why does it have multiple names?
The term coronavirus designates a family of viruses causing respiratory tract infections, mostly benign for humans and animals. The exact name of the disease that has plagued France and the world since December 2019 is “Covid-19” for Corona (Co) virus (vi) disease (d), which means disease in English, and 19 to denote the year detection.
Another name appears regularly: “SARS-CoV-2”. It is not a disease, but a pathogen that is transmitted from human to human. Established by an international committee responsible for classifying viruses, it refers to “SARS-CoV”. The latter is the virus that caused the disease “SARS” (NDLR: in English, severe acute respiratory syndrome) that appeared in 2002 and 2003 and caused several hundred deaths in Asia.
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