An accountant from Wuhan, China, who is believed to be the first person to contract Covid-19 actually developed symptoms 8 days later than originally reported, prompting a woman to sell seafood at the market. The now infamous Huanan is the earliest known case.
The confusion was caused by complications from dental work that made the 41-year-old man sick on December 8. Fever and other symptoms caused by coronavirus began on December 16, after multiple workers at the hospital Huanan market shows signs of infection. , including seafood sellers whose symptoms began on December 11, according to a study Thursday in the journal Science.
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The accountant lived 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the market and had no connection with it. Michael Worobey, head of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona in Tucson and an author of the study, said he may have been infected by community transmission after the virus began. spread in Wuhan.
Worobey’s research shows that the Huanan market was the source of the initial outbreak and not just where the SARS-CoV-2 virus was amplified in a super-spreader event.
Scientists have yet to determine the origin of SARS-CoV-2. The debate over its origins has rallied around two competing ideas: a lab runaway or an animal contagion. Studies that have identified closely related coronaviruses, including in bats living in limestone caves in Northern Laos and Cambodia, support the second hypothesis, especially since these live animals are susceptible to infection. sold in wet markets in Wuhan, including central Huanan.
No live mammals purchased at the Huanan market or any other live animal markets in Wuhan have been screened for the virus associated with SARS-CoV-2, and the Huanan market has been closed and disinfected. on January 1, Worobey said.
“However, most of the early symptomatic cases are linked to the Huanan Market – particularly the western area where raccoon dogs are housed – providing strong evidence of a pandemic origin from live animal market,” he said.
Although it may never be possible to recover the related viruses from animals as they were not tested when Covid-19 emerged, conclusive evidence of the Huanan market origin through infected wild animals is possible. disease can come from analyzing the spatial patterns of the original cases, he said. Additional genomic data, including SARS-CoV-2-positive samples from the Huanan market, as well as additional epidemiological data, could strengthen this case, Worobey said.
“Preventing future pandemics depends on this effort,” he said.
