COVID-19—Zoonosis or Emerging Infectious Disease?

The World Health Organization defines a zoonosis as any infection naturally transmissible from vertebrate animals to humans. The pandemic of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 has been classified as a zoonotic disease, however, no animal reservoir has yet been found, so this classification is premature. We propose that COVID-19 should instead be classified an “emerging infectious disease (EID) of probable animal origin.” To explore if COVID-19 infection fits our proposed re-categorization vs. the contemporary definitions of zoonoses, we reviewed current evidence of infection origin and transmission routes of SARS-CoV-2 virus and described this in the context of known zoonoses, EIDs and “spill-over” events. Although the initial one hundred COVID-19 patients were presumably exposed to the virus at a seafood Market in China, and despite the fact that 33 of 585 swab samples collected from surfaces and cages in the market tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, no virus was isolated directly from animals and no animal reservoir was detected. Elsewhere, SARS-CoV-2 has been detected in animals including domesticated cats, dogs, and ferrets, as well as captive-managed mink, lions, tigers, deer, and mice confirming zooanthroponosis. Other than circumstantial evidence of zoonotic cases in mink farms in the Netherlands, no cases of natural transmission from wild or domesticated animals have been confirmed. More than 40 million human COVID-19 infections reported appear to be exclusively through human-human transmission. SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 do not meet the WHO definition of zoonoses. We suggest SARS-CoV-2 should be re-classified as an EID of probable animal origin..

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2020

Erschienen:

2020

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:8

Enthalten in:

Frontiers in Public Health - 8(2020)

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Najmul Haider [VerfasserIn]
Peregrine Rothman-Ostrow [VerfasserIn]
Abdinasir Yusuf Osman [VerfasserIn]
Liã Bárbara Arruda [VerfasserIn]
Laura Macfarlane-Berry [VerfasserIn]
Linzy Elton [VerfasserIn]
Margaret J. Thomason [VerfasserIn]
Dorothy Yeboah-Manu [VerfasserIn]
Rashid Ansumana [VerfasserIn]
Nathan Kapata [VerfasserIn]
Leonard Mboera [VerfasserIn]
Jonathan Rushton [VerfasserIn]
Timothy D. McHugh [VerfasserIn]
David L. Heymann [VerfasserIn]
Alimuddin Zumla [VerfasserIn]
Alimuddin Zumla [VerfasserIn]
Richard A. Kock [VerfasserIn]

Links:

doi.org [kostenfrei]
doaj.org [kostenfrei]
www.frontiersin.org [kostenfrei]
Journal toc [kostenfrei]

Themen:

COVID-19
Emerging infectious disease (EID)
Public aspects of medicine
SARS-CoV-2
Spillover
Zoonoses

doi:

10.3389/fpubh.2020.596944

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

DOAJ000891657