Moscow, Oct 6 (Representative) Coronavirus could be easily transmitted from humans back to animals, for example, when a bat picks up a half-eaten fruit left by an infected person, thus making it possible for the virus to mutate and cause another pandemic, Wang Linfa, professor from the Emerging Infectious Diseases program at the Duke-NUS Medical School, said on Wednesday. “Bats have a very unique immune system in that they can sustain a virus without developing disease. However, the virus can still mutate and transmit to animal X, Y, or Z. So when that mutated virus goes to animal X,Y,Z and gets to a human, then that’s where we get our disease X,Y,Z or Sars-CoV-3,” Wang was quoted as saying by the Straits Times newspaper.
The scientist suggested that to prevent pandemics similar to the COVID-19 one it is necessary to monitor what viruses are present in animals. Linfa also noted that health authorities should look for early signs of a pandemic and develop vaccines and treatments as soon as the virus begins to spread. On December 31, 2019, the Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization of an outbreak of unknown pneumonia in Wuhan in the central part of the country. The first cases of infection were connected with a local seafood market. Earlier this year, the WHO published the full version of a report prepared by an international group of experts on a visit to Wuhan carried out to identify the origin of the coronavirus. The experts called the leak from the Chinese laboratory “extremely unlikely.” The report also said the new type of coronavirus was most likely transmitted to humans from bats through another animal.