Coronavirus Ancestor Discovered in Bat-Infested Mine in China, Possible Link to COVID-19
Renowned coronavirus expertise center, Wuhan Institute of Virology, was called in to conduct a test in four of the six men who survived the illness.
Like a virus, which is more than 95 percent similar to coronavirus that's causing COVID-19, an investigation said, was found seven years ago, in an abandoned mine in China.
Mail Online reported on Sunday, based on the finding, the bat-infected copper mine located in western China, specifically in Mojiang, was "home to a coronavirus that resulted in the illness of six adult men who contracted pneumonia and from which, three of them died.
Scientists took samples from feces of bats, which they found on the cave floor. The said researchers stored the samples in a lab, according to the report, "1,000 miles away in Wuhan" for a couple of years while being studied.
Then in December 2019, Wuhan turned out to be the source of this pandemic the world is currently experiencing, which has already infected over 11.5 million and killed more than 535,000 people globally.
The Virus Most Closely Related to COVID-19
The virus RaBtCoV/4991, an investigation by the Sunday Times found that at present, "appears to be the closest relative to SARS-Cov-2, which causes COVID-19.
However, Mail Online reported, it seems that the Chinese have not been "forthcoming about the fact they discovered" like a similar virus nearly ten years ago, and particularly not that, it caused the death of three men upon its discovery.
Additionally, according to the report, the said virus has reportedly been highlighted in just "one widely available scientific research," and it did not have any mention of the fact that it was the cause of deadly pneumonia among humans.
According to research, the finding that something quite the same as COVID-19 reportedly circulated in bats in Mojiang. Relatively, the same study indicated, 50 percent of the bats tested in the copper mine "were carrying at least one type of coronavirus," and this has raised worries about the real origin of COVID-19.
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The Virus, a Major Discovery
What was discovered in 2012 was said to be a "huge discovery." In a report by The Australian, the virus was described as "a 'new strain' of the SARS-type coronavirus" that unexpectedly obtained only "a passing mention" in academic research without citing the six men who got ill.
The next events related to the virus years after its discovery and the outbreak of the pandemic, the reason for ignoring the virus's existence in research, and not citing its connection to the three deaths had been the questions asked.
It was undeniable that the bravery of the scientists who put their lives at risk and harvested the highly-contagious virus. But did their brave investigative project lead unintentionally to worldwide catastrophe?
Rewind from seven years ago, The First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming, doctors got bewildered by what reports described as a "mystery illness."
The six men working in the bat-infected mine experienced uncontrollably high fevers with 39C temperature, painful limbs, and coughs. All six but one experienced "severe difficulty in breathing."
The first two of six died, while the rest went through a series of tests for dengue fever, influenza, Japanese encephalitis, and a hemorrhagic giver, but all had negative results.
The remaining four men also tested for SARS, an epidemic that erupted in 2002 in Southern China, and like the other tests, all got negative results.
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The 'Mystery Virus'
Renowned coronavirus expertise center, Wuhan Institute of Virology, was called in to conduct a test in four of the six men who survived the illness.
These resulted in a significant result specifically, while no one among the four had positive results for SARS, all of them reportedly, "had antibodies against another," not known coronavirus like that of SARS.
Moreover, the two who recovered and were sent home presented higher antibodies levels compared to the two others left hospitalized, one of whom later on, died.
Relatively, Scientists in China, failed to identify any media report about the new SARS-like coronavirus, including the three deaths earlier mentioned.
Also, there appears to have a news blackout about the case. It is possible, though, to gather together piece the occurrence in Kunming hospital from a thesis by Li Xu, a young medic.
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