An update on the consequences of the new coronavirus epidemic. From China to Italy: how many infections there are, what the symptoms are and why there is talk of an emergency, including an economic one. The expert's opinion.
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It was supposed to be a time of celebration for China and the Chinese people. With the arrival of the New Year, squares burst into a thousand colours. Music, songs and laughter echo through the streets. The scent of exquisite dishes fills the air. Today, however, Wuhan, in Hubei province, looks almost like a ghost town. It should be one of the most important centres in all of China, but since it was placed under quarantine, it is unrecognisable. Grey skies, fear and silence reign supreme, and it is hard to imagine that it is normally home to eleven million people.
The epidemic of a new coronavirus, which over the past few months has thrown the world into panic, began in one of those streets, in one of those markets. Today, more than 40,000 people are infected and more than 900 have lost their lives, in China alone. The global level of alert is extremely high, so much so that the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a state of emergency.
Let us examine together the available information on this new virus:
"The first vaccine for coronavirus could be ready in 18 months." This is what was stated by the director-general of the World Health Organisation Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a briefing with the press in Geneva. "We must therefore do everything and use the weapons at our disposal to fight the virus," he added.
No vaccine yet exists for this lethal virus, but over the past month enormous strides have been made in the medical field that will, it is hoped, contribute to creating one in the future. The Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome was one of the first centres in the world to successfully isolate the new coronavirus, officially named Covid-19 (after initially being called 2019-nCov).
The team is made up of Maria Capobianchi, director of the hospital's virology laboratory, Eleonora Lalle, head of laboratory diagnostics for respiratory viral infections, with the collaboration of Concetta Castilletti, head of the Emerging Viruses Unit, Fabrizio Carletti, an expert in the design of new molecular tests, and Antonino Di Caro, head of international health liaisons.
This team was able to isolate the virus taken from a Chinese tourist couple admitted to the facility, who were suspected of having contracted the disease. Their discovery is fundamental to finding a cure, as scientists will now be able to monitor the course of the illness over time, understand its origin and identify which drugs to use to treat it. It will take time. This discovery "is important because it means having in our country a centre with a high-level methodology that can also be passed on to other institutes – Dr Carlo Signorelli told us, full professor of Hygiene at the Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan, one of the most important centres in our country –. At times like these it is essential to have an effective diagnostic system, because when there are suspected cases of contagion, rapid answers must be provided."
The coronaviruses known to date belong to a single family of seven respiratory viruses that can cause various illnesses, from the common cold to more serious conditions such as Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and Mers (Middle East respiratory syndrome). They are viruses that are also widespread in the animal world, especially among mammals and birds.
The more surveillance and medical knowledge improve, the greater the possibility of isolating further ones. Indeed, this new coronavirus belongs to a variety never previously identified. "The viral sequence of Covid-19 is more than 76 per cent similar to the DNA of the Sars virus," explains Dr Elisa Vicenzi, head of the viral pathogens and biosafety laboratory at the Ospedale San Raffaele di Milano.
The symptoms are very similar to those of a common flu:
For the time being, the disease has an incubation period ranging from 6 to 14 days, during which the risk of contagion is very high.
It is still not clear either where the coronavirus originated
