Bat-related Coronaviruses More Frequent Than Thought, Says Study

The emerging diseases caused by coronaviruses of bat origin have disrupted global health and economies for two decades, says study.

The emerging diseases caused by coronaviruses of bat origin have disrupted global health and economies for two decades, says study conducted by Singapore's Duke-NUS Medical School and US-based non-profit EcoHealth Alliance researchers.

Diseases caused by bat-related coronaviruses include SARS, Middle East respiratory syndrome, swine acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus and Covid-19.

COVID in Children | Guidelines for Management of COVID-19 in Children
Covid-19 virus has affected many children during the second wave. Many factors play a role in COVID in children and the management of COVID in children. Therefore, it is highly essential for parents to know and understand the symptoms in children.

‘In South and Southeast Asia, an average of about 400,000 people are infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS-CoV).’

New evidence, published on preprint server Medrxiv, meaning it has not been peer reviewed yet, suggests that acesome bat SARSr-CoVs could infect people directly, and that their spillover is more frequent than previously recognised".

"Each zoonotic spillover of a novel virus represents an opportunity for evolutionary adaptation and further spread; therefore, quantifying the extent of this 'hidden' spillover may help target prevention programmes," the researchers said.

For the study, the team derived biologically realistic range distributions for known bat SARSr-CoV hosts and quantified their overlap with human populations.

COVID Vaccination for Pregnant Women
The Indian Government has approved Covid-19 vaccination of pregnant women, who are to be counselled and informed regarding the risks and benefits of the vaccines.

Using probabilistic risk assessment and data on human-bat contact, human SARSr-CoV seroprevalence, and antibody duration they estimated that about 400,000 people (median: about 50,000) are infected with SARSr-CoVs annually in South and Southeast Asia.

"These data on the geography and scale of spillover can be used to target surveillance and prevention programs for potential future bat-CoV emergence," the researchers said.

Covid Pandemic: How Parents can Help Kids Deal with Back-to-School Anxiety
Understanding the role of the covid pandemic on back-to-school anxiety and children's mental health can help prepare parents deal with their child's anxiety.

While the exact origins of the SARS-CoV-2, virus that caused Covid-19, remains unclear even after nearly 18 months, the disease likely emerged when a virus that infects horseshoe bats was able to jump to humans -- either directly through wildlife-to-human contact, or indirectly by first infecting an intermediate animal host, such as the pangolin.

Horseshoe bats have been known to carry a variety of coronaviruses, including strains that are genetically similar to ones that cause Covid-19 and SARS.

Test your Knowledge on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Coronavirus is a large positive-strand RNA virus that is surrounded by a protein envelope. The virus obtains its name from the S protein spikes on its surface, which resemble a crown. The overall pattern of increasing coronavirus cases is shown to spike up with the “second wave” of COVID-19.

With spiking effects of the second wave of coronavirus, the best way to keep it at bay is to follow COVID-appropriate safety practices like wearing a mask, regularly cleaning your hands, and coughing into a bent elbow or tissue along with physical distancing (6 feet about 2 arm's length), that may help evade the severity of COVID-19 infection.

A study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE in June showed that bats in Switzerland harbour viruses from 39 different viral families, and some have the potential to jump to other animals, including humans, and cause disease.

Another study, published in the journal Nature Food showed that China, Japan, the Philippines, and Thailand may transition into "hotspots" favourable for bats that carry coronaviruses and where conditions are ripe for the diseases to jump from bats to humans.

This is because of the global land-use changes including forest fragmentation, agricultural expansion and concentrated livestock production.

Source-IANS