A new coronavirus associated with human respiratory disease in China

TLDR

Emerging infectious diseases such as SARS and Zika pose major public health threats, and a severe respiratory illness reported in Wuhan, linked to a seafood market, had already caused 1,975 cases by 25 January 2020. The study examined a single seafood market worker admitted on 26 December 2019 with severe respiratory symptoms. Metagenomic sequencing of the patient’s bronchoalveolar lavage fluid revealed a novel coronavirus, WH‑Human 1 (2019‑nCoV), whose genome is 89.1 % similar to bat SARS‑like coronaviruses, underscoring animal‑to‑human spill‑over.

Abstract

Abstract Emerging infectious diseases, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Zika virus disease, present a major threat to public health 1–3 . Despite intense research efforts, how, when and where new diseases appear are still a source of considerable uncertainty. A severe respiratory disease was recently reported in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. As of 25 January 2020, at least 1,975 cases had been reported since the first patient was hospitalized on 12 December 2019. Epidemiological investigations have suggested that the outbreak was associated with a seafood market in Wuhan. Here we study a single patient who was a worker at the market and who was admitted to the Central Hospital of Wuhan on 26 December 2019 while experiencing a severe respiratory syndrome that included fever, dizziness and a cough. Metagenomic RNA sequencing 4 of a sample of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from the patient identified a new RNA virus strain from the family Coronaviridae , which is designated here ‘WH-Human 1’ coronavirus (and has also been referred to as ‘2019-nCoV’). Phylogenetic analysis of the complete viral genome (29,903 nucleotides) revealed that the virus was most closely related (89.1% nucleotide similarity) to a group of SARS-like coronaviruses (genus Betacoronavirus, subgenus Sarbecovirus) that had previously been found in bats in China 5 . This outbreak highlights the ongoing ability of viral spill-over from animals to cause severe disease in humans.