New Coronavirus likely to stay here: Experts

Experts think the New Coronavirus and the disease caused by it called COVID-19 will probably become a permanent part of the human respiratory-virus repertoire.

It will become another seasonal cold and flu related illness. This is going to be with us for some time it's endemic in human populations and not going to go away without a vaccine said Amesh Adalja an infectious-disease expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

The virus causes a disease called COVID-19 that's marked by fevers coughing and occasionally severe lung infections reports Business Insider.

At least 2900 people have died and more than 86000 were infected globally according to an AP report.

Meanwhile Chinese president Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump have both expressed optimism about impending springtime weather since the warmth could stymie the virus' spread in a similar way to the seasonal flu.

That may be the case Adalja said: It may decrease in transmission frequency so that you'll be able to have time to get a vaccine scaled up by the next appearance of it.

But it doesn't mean the coronavirus would go away for good.

Even if the coronavirus becomes seasonal it's not going anywhere

If the coronavirus winds up fluctuating with the seasons like the flu it could retreat in summer and return in the fall and winter each year.

We know respiratory viruses are very seasonal but not exclusively William Schaffner an infectious-disease specialist at Vanderbilt University told CNN. One would hope that the gradual spring will help this virus recede. We can't be sure of that.

Respiratory viruses are seasonal because cooler temperatures help harden a protective gel-like coating that surrounds the virus particles while they're in the air. A stronger shell allows them to survive long enough in the air to travel from one person to the next.

The flu virus survives better in cool dry temperatures Amanda Simanek an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee told Business Insider.

But of course the northern and southern hemispheres don't experience the same seasons at the same time. So once China and the US see warmer weather countries in South America and Oceania will be entering winter.

Plus some countries don't experience dramatic seasonal changes at all so the flu circulates there year round Adalja said.

Another virus that circulates in the community

Four other human coronaviruses are already endemic in the global population. They're all seasonal and they typically cause mild common colds though each can cause pneumonia.

According to Adalja the new coronavirus may very well be endemic now too a member of the club of community-acquired constantly circulating coronaviruses.

On Wednesday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the first possible case of coronavirus community spread in the US. The patient is at a hospital in Sacramento California.

That means the new coronavirus is spreading from person to person in the US Adalja said rather than just among people who were recently in China.

It's something established in the community he said.

Adalja added that some public-health experts already suspected that some US coronavirus cases were being missed because of their similarity to other seasonal illnesses.

Likely community spread of mild cases was happening in many countries around the world mixed in with cold and flu season cases he said.

Source: United News of Bangladesh