BEIJING, Feb 22 - RIA News. Human-to-human transmission of a new type of coronavirus began as early as November or early December last year. This is how the virus entered the seafood market in Wuhan , from where it spread throughout the country. This conclusion was made by scientists from the tropical botanical garden at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The specialists analyzed the genomic data of 93 samples of a new type of coronavirus in the GISAID EpiFlu database, collected in 12 countries on four continents (which were entered into the database before February 12), as well as infection sources and distribution routes.
"A new type of coronavirus entered the Huanan seafood market from another place, and quickly spread both in the market and beyond," the report said. Scientists also found that the spread of the disease went along at least three routes. Scientists conducted a study of 58 haplotypes that were detected in these 93 samples, and found that a “null patient” could infect someone on the Juanan, and the crowded seafood market with poor sanitary conditions became a favorable environment for the spread of the virus between people .
The study showed that the identified haplotypes can be conditionally divided into five groups, three of them are “old” spreading epidemics (for example, H1, H3 and H13), two are “new” (H56 and mv2). For example, in the samples of all patients with coronavirus that were related to the seafood market, haplotype H1 and its derivatives H2 and H8-H12 were detected, and in the samples of some patients in Wuhan, haplotype H3 was revealed, which has no relation to the seafood market.
The conclusion, based on the timing of the onset of patient infections and the expansion of the disease, confirmed the theory that the Huanan market was not a source of coronavirus. This is indicated by traces of the “old” haplotypes H13 and H38 in the samples found in patients from Shenzhen (the first case in Guangdong Province) and in Washington (the first case in the USA). Their travel stories indicate that they should have been infected during visits to relatives in Wuhan from late December 2019 to early January 2020.
At the same time, scientists noted that haplotypes H13 and H38 were not found in patient samples in Wuhan, probably because the samples existing in the database were mainly collected from certain hospitals in the city from December 24, 2019 to January 5, 2020. If these two haplotypes can be found in patients in other hospitals in Wuhan, then this will be extremely useful for finding the source of coronavirus.
As indicated in the study, the transmission of the virus from person to person may have started back in early December or late November 2019, and then accelerated when it reached the Huanan seafood market. Masked and plastic bag passengers at Shanghai Railway Station, China
On January 6, the National Center for Disease Prevention and Control of China introduced the second level of emergency response to emergency situations related to public health, which served as a warning against travel and public events. According to scientists, if more attention had been paid to this warning and the public reaction was more active, then the spread of the disease in China and around the world in mid-January would be lower.
It was found that the infections in the other nine provinces of China and 11 countries were mainly directly related to Wuhan. At the same time, three possible sources of infection were identified in Guangdong Province, and two more in Chongqing and Taiwan. At the same time, it was proven that patients from Australia, France, Japan and the United States had at least two sources of infection.
According to scientists, the H56 haplotype deserves special attention, which has become a source of infection for patients in Australia, the USA, France and Taiwan.
The study noted that the general database contains few samples of patients from other countries (other than those indicated) and most of them have the same source of infection, patients either infected themselves in Wuhan, or from people who were in Wuhan, or were infected in Guangdong , Singapore and other places.
