Compare the severity of the new coronavirus with zoonotic virus outbreaks from the past, in a simple graph

Since December 31, the Wuhan coronavirus has killed at least 170 people and infected more than 8,000 in 20 countries , including the United States. However, the outbreak is not currently considered a pandemic, despite its rapid spread.

Still, to put things in perspective, nothing like the following table comparing China’s coronavirus to other major animal virus outbreaks that have occurred in the past half century. The first thing we see is that the Wuhan coronavirus has a very low mortality rate .

Comparison chart

More than 75% of emerging diseases originate in animals – they are called zoonotic diseases, which means they can jump from animals to people. At least 10 outbreaks in the past century have spread to humans from mammals such as bats, birds, and pigs .

Ebola jumped from fruit bats in West Africa 40 years ago and has killed more than 13,500 people in multiple outbreaks. The Marberg virus, SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome), and Nipah also originated in bats.

Meanwhile, H7N9 and H5N9 bird flu jumped from infected poultry to people in Chinese markets, killing more than 1,000 people. The 2009-2010 swine flu (also known as H1N1) pandemic started in pigs. It killed nearly 300,000 people in a global pandemic and spread to 214 countries in less than a year.

Via | Science Alert