Hundreds of thousands of people may be infected annually by animals carrying coronaviruses related to the one that causes Covid-19 each year in China and Southeast Asia, according to a study emphasizing the ongoing pandemic threat from spillover events.
An average of 400,000 such infections occur annually, most going unrecognized because they cause mild or no symptoms and aren’t easily transmitted between people, researchers with the EcoHealth Alliance and Singapore’s Duke-NUS Medical School said in a study released Thursday before peer review and publication. Still, each spillover represents an opportunity for viral adaptation that could lead to a Covid-like outbreak
“This is probably the first attempt to estimate how often people are infected with SARS-related coronaviruses from bats,” said Edward Holmes, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Sydney who wasn’t involved in the research. Humans are continually exposed to bat coronaviruses, he said. “Given the right set of circumstances, one of these could eventually lead to a disease outbreak.”
News Source: Newslogic
