Hundreds of thousands of people may be infected annually each year in China and Southeast Asia by animals carrying coronaviruses related to the one that causes COVID-19, according to a study emphasizing the ongoing pandemic threat from spillover events.
An average of 400,000 such infections occur annually, most going unrecognized because they cause mild or no symptoms and aren¡¯t easily transmitted between people, researchers with the EcoHealth Alliance and Singapore¡¯s Duke-NUS Medical School said in a study released Thursday before peer review and publication. Still, each spillover represents an opportunity for viral adaptation that could lead to a an outbreak similar to that seen with COVID-19.
The question of where and how the virus that causes the disease emerged has become particularly contentious, with some leaders blaming a hypothetical leak from a lab in Wuhan, China, that studies the pathogens.
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