Cambridge: Scientists have detected a new type of coronavirus found in dogs in some people suffering from pneumonia. It may sound dangerous to say, listen, but after analyzing it seems that you do not need to be disturbed because of it. A group of highly respected international scientists has informed the Department of Clinical Infectious Diseases (CID) after eight people were found to have dog coronavirus at a hospital in Sarawak, Malaysia. So should this be taken to mean that dogs can spread coronavirus to humans? The first thing to clarify is what is dog coronavirus.
It is important to note that it is quite different from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The coronavirus family can be divided into four groups of viruses: alpha, beta, gamma, and delta coronavirus. SARS-CoV-2 belongs to the betacoronavirus group, while dog coronaviruses are from an entirely different alphacoronavirus group. Scientists have known about the coronavirus of dogs for almost 50 years. For most of this period, the virus existed with an undisclosed existence, and only veterinarians and occasionally dogs raised dogs were interested in it. There is no previous information about how these viruses infect humans.
But now, with everyone’s eye on the coronavirus everywhere in the world, the presence of coronavirus is found even in places where it has never been seen before. Recently, coronavirus infection of dogs found in people was actually the result of serious research being done in this direction. Those who were made part of this discovery were cured a long time ago. Scientists were not specifically just looking for dogs’ coronaviruses, researchers were trying to develop a test that could detect all types of coronaviruses at the same time – a so-called pan-COV test. After confirming the testing work on virus samples prepared in laboratories, he tested it on samples from 192 patients with pneumonia hospitalized in Malaysia. Nine of these samples resulted in a positive for coronavirus. Further investigation in this regard revealed that five out of the above nine samples were normal human coronaviruses which could cause colds. But, surprisingly, four specimens were of coronaviruses found in dogs. Upon further examination of the patients of the same hospital, four more positive patients came out. In an effort to learn more about the coronaviruses found in dogs, the researchers examined nasal and throat samples from all eight Malaysian patients. These samples were injected into the dog’s cells in the laboratory to find out if any living viruses were present.
Viruses from the same sample were replicated thoroughly, and virus particles could be visualized using electron microscopy. Scientists were also able to sequence the virus’s genome. The analysis found that the coronavirus found in dogs was closely related to a few different alphacoronaviruses – including pigs and cats – and also revealed that it had not been previously identified elsewhere. There is no evidence of further spread, now the question arises whether this coronavirus found in dogs was responsible for pneumonia in patients? At the moment, we cannot answer this question. Seven of the eight patients who were part of the investigation were also simultaneously infected with another virus, which was either adenovirus, influenza or parenfluenza virus. We know that all of these viruses can cause pneumonia on their own, so it is more likely that they were responsible for the disease.
We can say that the pneumonia found in these patients is related to the dogs’ coronavirus, but cannot say that only this virus is the cause of pneumonia in them. There are apprehensions that the coronaviruses of dogs found in these Malaysian patients may spread from one person to another, and if that happens, the result will be a large-scale outbreak of the disease. Those who raise this fact prominently do not clarify that these cases of infection in humans are actually from 2017 and 2018. In this case, the probability of coronavirus infestation of dogs from this source is reduced further as there is no evidence of further spread in the intervening three to four years.
This is a time when there is talk of coronaviruses and all kinds of viruses are being discovered and there is no denying that some more positive samples can be obtained from unexpected places, but most of them only There will be limited to studies and investigations and there is no need to be concerned. However, it is important that new coronaviruses continue to be monitored and expanded so that if a new type of virus is discovered in the future, we have every chance of detecting it.
