The Novel Virus known as HCoV-EMC which emerged in the Middle-East has been found to infect the lungs and respiratory system as easily as the common cold.
Like SARS and Hepatitis C the virus may be treatable with components of the immune system, known as interferons, according to Swiss researchers.
"Surprisingly, this coronavirus grows very efficiently on human epithelial cells," said study co-author Volker Thiel of the Institute of Immunobiology at Kantonal Hospital in St. Gallen, in a news release from the American Society for Microbiology. Epithelial cells line hollow organs and glands.
"The other thing we found is that the viruses [HCoV-EMC, SARS, and the common cold virus] are all similar in terms of host responses: they don't provoke a huge innate immune response," he said.
The study was published online Feb. 19 in mBio.
HCoV-EMC, which may have jumped from animal to human very recently, was first isolated in June after a man in Saudi Arabia died from a severe respiratory infection and kidney failure. Following his death, health officials identified 11 more people infected with the virus, the latest in Great Britain. So far, six of the 12 people with known infections have died. Nearly all patients have lived or traveled in the Middle East.
Human lungs are acting like little wifi capacitors for this bacteria growth
ReplyDelete