The novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has killed at least 170 people and infected more than 7,700 since December last year. Although the epidemic was originally traced to a busy seafood market in Wuhan City, China, scientists are now challenging the theory.
According to Dr Paweł Grzesiowski from the Medical Centre of Postgraduate Education in Warsaw, Poland, the first person infected with the new coronavirus strain appears to have caught it elsewhere.
He said: “What is interesting, is that Patient X, that is, the first – as it is suspected – to be infected with this microorganism at the beginning of December 2019, did not have any contact with the fish market where the infection could have occurred.”
Coronaviruses are a zoonotic family of pathogens, meaning they can be transmitted between animals and humans.
A leading coronavirus theory suggests the pathogen was spread by Chinese beluga fish or snakes – two animals likely sold at the Wuhan market.
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Scientists have also looked into the possibility of bats spreading the virus – another delicacy consumed in China.
Dr Grzesiowski said: “Zoonoses are most commonly viral in origin and not bacterial because viruses jump the species barrier more easily.”
Now according to a paper published by a team of Chinese scientists, a study of 41 coronavirus patients has failed to found concrete links to Wuhan’s seafood market.
The first known person to contract the coronavirus fell ill on December 1, 2019, and has no known ties to the market.
The researchers further found “no epidemiological links” between Patient Zero and later infections.
Of the 41 patients, only 27 were found to have had direct exposure to the Wuhan market.
The virus came into that marketplace before it came out of that marketplace
Daniel Lucey, Georgetown University
The study, published in The Lancet, reads: “The symptom onset date of the first patient identified was December 1, 2019.
“None of his family members developed fever or any respiratory symptoms.
“No epidemiological link was found between the first patient and later cases.
“The first fatal case, who had continuous exposure to the market, was admitted to hospital because of a seven-day history of fever, cough, and dyspnoea.
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“Five days after illness onset, his wife, a 53-year-old woman who had no known history of exposure to the market, also presented with pneumonia and was hospitalised in the isolation ward.”
According to Daniel Lucey, an infectious disease specialist at Georgetown University, the data suggests the first novel coronavirus infection occurred in November or earlier.
The viral expert told the journal Science the incubation time between infection and first symptoms emerging, does not match the December 1 date.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the novel coronavirus has an incubation period between two and 10 days.
Dr Lucey said: “The virus came into that marketplace before it came out of that marketplace.”
Kristian Andersen, an evolutionary biologist at the Scripps Research Institute, agreed with the theory, claiming Patient Zero could have carried the infection to the market, rather than catching the virus at the market.
He said: “The scenario of somebody being infected outside the market and then later bringing it to the market is one of the three scenarios we have considered that is still consistent with the data.
“It’s entirely plausible given our current data and knowledge.”
The WHO was first alerted to the novel coronavirus on December 31 and Chinese authorities closed the Wuhan market on January 1.
By January 7, Chinese scientists confirmed the pathogen was a new strain of the coronavirus family.
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