China’s deadly coronavirus has sparked fear all over the world.
The death toll reached 106 on Monday, with the number of cases almost doubling in just one day to more than 4,500, the BBC reported.
Since starting in the city of Wuhan - capital of Hubei province - at the end of last year, the new strain has spread throughout China and crossed national borders to at least 16 countries.
With it infectious before symptoms develop, one expert fears the virus may be more contagious than severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars).
Sars, also in the coronavirus class, killed 774 people across dozens of countries during its 2004 outbreak.
When it comes to the new strain - 2019-nCoV - scientists from Imperial College London estimated each sufferer in China infected between 1.5 and 3.5 people up to January 18.
This led them to believe more than 60% of transmissions need to be prevented to control the outbreak.
Speaking at the time, Professor Mark Harris - from the University of Leeds - said: “One positive spin is if we are only aware of 5% of the total cases.
“The implication is 95% of cases have only resulted in either mild symptoms such that the infected people did not consider it serious enough to seek medical help or indeed the virus may be causing an inapparent infection.
“This would significantly reduce the apparent mortality and morbidity rates.”
A team from the University of Oxford predicted if a virus-ridden person were to arrive in the UK, there is more than a one-in-three chance they will pass it on.
2019-nCoV is thought to have emerged from a seafood and live animal market in Wuhan, with all those who initially fell ill working - or visiting - there.
Constantly-evolving viruses can “jump” from one species to another, with current thinking being it may have spilled over from bats to snakes and finally humans.
“If the virus is able to spread before symptoms show, that could certainly explain why the virus is spreading quicker that Sars,” Dr Robin Thompson, from the University of Oxford, told New Scientist.
“Sars took several months to cause a thousand cases.
“This has caused [almost] 3,000 cases in three weeks.”
Virtually unheard of a month ago, there is still much we do not know about the pathogen’s symptoms, transmission or death rate.
“Virus transmission occurs when there is a high enough level of virus in the blood and body secretions of an infected person to another,” Professor David Heymann, from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said.
“Some infections can be passed from one human to another a few days before symptoms occur because there are high levels of virus and the virus then causes disease symptoms.
“This depends on how the virus is transmitted and that is not fully understood at present.
“It is known this virus can pass from one to another through close physical contact, and more and more evidence suggests it can be passed by droplets that spread face-to-face by a cough or sneeze directly on the face from one to another, as was Sars.”
Based on data collected between January 10 and 21, scientists from the Chinese University of Hong Kong estimate each patient could pass the virus onto between three and five people.
“These are worryingly high numbers and support the rapidly increasingly numbers of infections,” Professor Bill Keevil, from the University of Southampton, said.
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