Covid-19 emerging
A coronavirus outbreak that emerged in China in December, and is now spreading into other countries, has sickened more than ( 430,000) people and killed more than ( 19,000 ). Public health officials are racing to contain the pathogen, but this is not the first time the world has had to battle the spread of a novel coronavirus. Here’s how the current situation compares to past epidemics. The new coronavirus, which causes a disease called COVID-19, was first reported in Wuhan, China. It has now spread to more than 190 countries, including South Korea, Japan, Italy, Iran and the United States. The source of the virus has not been confirmed, but early genetic analyses suggest that the pathogen likely originated in bats and was subsequently passed to an intermediate animal before spilling over into humans
One factor that could contribute to the extent of damage that any new coronavirus can cause is globalization. As infectious disease specialist and WHO advisor Prof. David Heymann told Medical News  in an interview: “In the past, coronaviruses that cause the common cold in humans also emerged, possibly in the same way as did the current pandemic. But they did not have the opportunity to hop on international flights and spread rapidly around the globe,” he continued. “They likely circulated locally and then gradually spread to neighboring countries and onward throughout the world.”