The Mystery of the Lung Destroyer Virus from China Turned Out to Have Infected Hundreds of People

News24xx.com - The number of people infected with the mysterious virus that emerged in China is far greater than the official number, scientists told the BBC.

A total of 41 new virus cases were confirmed in the laboratory, but experts in the UK estimate the number to be close to 1,700.

Two people are known to have died from the virus. The first victim that first appeared in the city of Wuhan, eastern China, last December.

The research was carried out by the MRC Center for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College London, which provides advice to various world institutions, including the UK government and the World Health Organization (WHO).

This virus has been identified as a coronavirus, which can cause a variety of diseases ranging from the common cold to deadly Sars.

Although the outbreak was centered in Wuhan, China, two cases were detected in Thailand and one in Japan.

"That worries me," said Prof Ferguson.

He added: "Cases in Wuhan which then spread three similar cases to other countries suggest there will be more cases than have been reported."

It is impossible to get exact figures, but modeling outbreaks, which is based on viruses, local populations, and flight data, can provide an illustration.

Wuhan International Airport serves a population of 19 million people, but there are only 3,400 international trips per day.

Detailed calculations, which have been uploaded on the official Imperial College London website before being published in scientific journals, yielded 1,700 cases.

 

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