{"id":28864,"date":"2020-03-05T07:00:46","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T13:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tmc.edu\/news\/?p=28864"},"modified":"2020-03-09T12:38:51","modified_gmt":"2020-03-09T17:38:51","slug":"responding-to-the-novel-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tmc.edu\/news\/2020\/03\/responding-to-the-novel-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"How scientists are responding to the novel coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"

The highly contagious respiratory illness caused by a novel coronavirus originating in Wuhan, China, has infected more than 80,350 people and killed more than 2,700 as of late February, according to the World Health Organization (WHO)<\/a>. At this point, the continued spread of the coronavirus seems inevitable.<\/p>\n

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\nLooking for the latest on the CORONAVIRUS? Read our daily updates HERE<\/a>.
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This virus \u201cshares some similarities with other known viruses, but it\u2019s new to science,\u201d said James Le Duc, Ph.D.<\/a>, director of the Galveston National Laboratory<\/a> at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB)<\/a>, one of the country\u2019s largest active biocontainment centers on an academic campus<\/p>\n

Scientists currently know of seven types of coronaviruses, including the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARSCoV), the 2012 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and, now, the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).<\/p>\n

The novel coronavirus and the SARS coronavirus are the most similar, sharing 80 percent of the same genes, said Peter Hotez, M.D., Ph.D.<\/a>, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and co-director of the Texas Children\u2019s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development.<\/p>\n

After the SARS outbreak, several Texas Medical Center institutions collaborated with centers in New York and China to develop and manufacture a SARS vaccine, with funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)<\/a>. The team included Baylor College of Medicine\u2019s National School of Tropical Medicine<\/a>, Texas Children\u2019s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development<\/a>, Galveston National Laboratory at UTMB<\/a>, New York Blood Center<\/a> and Fudan University<\/a> in China.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen this new epidemic came out, we quickly learned from Chinese scientists that both viruses bind to the same receptor,\u201d Hotez said. \u201cWe think there\u2019s a good possibility that the vaccine that we were funded by the NIH to develop here in the Texas Medical Center may actually work against the epidemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is a coronavirus?<\/strong>
\nThe first cases of the novel coronavirus were reported to WHO on Dec. 31, 2019. The virus has since spread to countries outside of China, including Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan, Australia, France, Germany, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and the United States\u2014prompting major cities in China to be placed under partial or full lockdown and airports across the world to screen for possibly infected passengers.<\/p>\n

Coronavirus is an umbrella term for a large category of zoonotic viruses transmitted between animals and people, causing respiratory illnesses that range from the common cold to severe disease. Named for their resemblance to the outer atmosphere of the sun, coronaviruses have crown-shaped spikes protruding from their surface.<\/p>\n

Coronaviruses enter the respiratory tract through the nose and have an incubation period of approximately three days. Common symptoms include fever, cough, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing; however, patients with more severe conditions can experience pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and death.<\/p>\n

Currently, there is no antiviral drug to effectively treat the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all supportive care today,\u201d Le Duc said. \u201cOnce we get access to the live virus, we can then test in animal models if antiviral drugs or other therapeutic interventions would help reduce the disease burden. I think that\u2019s a critical next step.\u201d<\/p>\n

How have we prepared for this outbreak?<\/strong>
\nAfter the 2003 SARS outbreak that infected more than 8,000 people and killed 774, the WHO worked with nearly 200 countries to implement the International Health Regulations 2005, measures designed to bolster disease detection and surveillance of international ports, airports and ground crossings.<\/p>\n

In addition, the Obama Administration signed an executive order in 2016 to advance the Global Health Security Agenda, an international initiative to protect against infectious disease threats.<\/p>\n

As a result, the government established a \u201cstrategic national stockpile\u201d of preparedness, Le Duc said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe country as a whole has invested heavily in preparedness for all sorts of disasters\u2014natural disasters, as well as infectious disease outbreaks,\u201d Le Duc added. \u201cThe government has on hand a lot of resources that could be used to help respond to an outbreak.\u201d<\/p>\n

At this stage, though, focusing on developing therapeutics to treat the coronavirus as opposed to a vaccine will probably have the greatest immediate impact, Le Duc said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re too reactive,\u201d Hotez added. \u201cWe wait for the crisis to happen and then we scramble and try to put Humpty Dumpty back together again, but vaccines don\u2019t work that way. Vaccines require weeks or months of safety testing. That\u2019s the problem by staying in reactive mode.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What you need to know about COVID-19 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":28865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4375,4484,4556,4130,555,4131,3530],"yoast_head":"\nHow scientists are responding to the novel coronavirus - TMC News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Houston-area scientists are responding to COVID-19 with laboratory research.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tmc.edu\/news\/2020\/03\/responding-to-the-novel-coronavirus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How scientists are responding to the novel coronavirus - TMC News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Houston-area scientists are responding to COVID-19 with laboratory research.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.tmc.edu\/news\/2020\/03\/responding-to-the-novel-coronavirus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TMC News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-05T13:00:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-03-09T17:38:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.tmc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/49530315718_7fb7c0e7f1_o.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1172\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shanley Pierce\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shanley Pierce\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tmc.edu\/news\/2020\/03\/responding-to-the-novel-coronavirus\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tmc.edu\/news\/2020\/03\/responding-to-the-novel-coronavirus\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Shanley Pierce\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tmc.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/b39cb2d1ede8d278ee8693200f44ced4\"},\"headline\":\"How scientists are responding to the novel coronavirus\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-05T13:00:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-03-09T17:38:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tmc.edu\/news\/2020\/03\/responding-to-the-novel-coronavirus\/\"},\"wordCount\":737,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tmc.edu\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tmc.edu\/news\/2020\/03\/responding-to-the-novel-coronavirus\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.tmc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/49530315718_7fb7c0e7f1_o.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"coronavirus\",\"COVID-19\",\"james le duc\",\"Mers\",\"Peter Hotez\",\"Sars\",\"vitals\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.tmc.edu\/news\/2020\/03\/responding-to-the-novel-coronavirus\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tmc.edu\/news\/2020\/03\/responding-to-the-novel-coronavirus\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tmc.edu\/news\/2020\/03\/responding-to-the-novel-coronavirus\/\",\"name\":\"How scientists are responding to the novel coronavirus - 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