Coronavirus ‘could be 1,000 times more infectious than SARS’, scientists warn as they discover it plagues the body the same way as HIV and Ebola
Coronavirus binds to human body cells similar to aggressive infectious diseases
Makes it ‘100 to 1,000 times’ more efficient at infecting than SARS, study found
Coronavirus has already struck down 82,000 victims and killed almost 3,000
By CONNOR BOYD HEALTH REPORTER
DAILYMAIL.COM
28 February 2020
The coronavirus could be up to 1,000 times more infectious than SARS because it plagues the body in the same way as HIV and Ebola, scientists warn.
Experts initially presumed the spread of COVID-19 would follow the same trajectory as the SARS outbreak in 2002/3, because the viruses are almost identical genetically.
But they have discovered the way it binds to cells in the human body is akin to far more aggressive diseases like HIV and Ebola.
This makes it ‘100 to 1,000 times’ more efficient at infecting people than SARS, according to researchers from Nankai University in Tianjin, northern China.
SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, infected 8,000 people worldwide and killed 774 people in a year in 2002.
But in just two months the currentcoronavirus crisis has already struck down 82,000 victims and almost 3,000 patients have succumbed to the illness.
SARS binds to a receptor protein called ACE2 after invading the human body through the mouth, nose or eyes.
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