Medical Discovery News
Science permeates everyday life. Yet the understanding of advances in biomedical science is limited at best. Few people make the connection that biomedical science is medicine and that biomedical scientists are working today for the medicine of tomorrow. Our weekly five-hundred-word newspaper column (http://www.illuminascicom.com/) and two-minute radio show provide insights into a broad range of biomedical science topics. Medical Discovery News is dedicated to explaining discoveries in biomedical research and their promise for the future of medicine. Each release is designed to stimulate listeners to think, question and appreciate how science affects their health as well as that of the rest of the world. We also delve into significant biomedical discoveries and portray how science (or the lack of it) has impacted health throughout history.
Medical Discovery News
The End of COVID
913 The End of COVID
Welcome to Medical Discovery News. I’m Dr David Niesel.
And I’m Dr. Norbert Herzog.
We’ve come to understand coronaviruses more since the COVID-nineteen pandemic. Research on these viruses stepped up in two thousand three with the SARS outbreak.
Until then, we merely thought of the viruses in terms of the common cold. But SARS-CoV-one was highly contagious and fatal. It spurred people to mask widely in Taiwan and the Far East where the outbreak was centered.
A smaller outbreak with another coronavirus happened about a decade later with MERS which was transmitted from camels to humans through bats.
Now we’re learning about past outbreaks that were also caused by this family of viruses and those also made the jump from animals to humans.
The OC-forty-three came from cows and caused an epidemic in Russia in eighteen ninety-nine that had been described as a flu outbreak. Another human coronavirus NL-sixty-three likely crossed from bats to humans around seven hundred years ago. And the HKU-one may have come from mice.
They’ve evolved and now give us what we know as the common cold. We’re hopeful that one day SARS-Co-V-2 will also taper off and pose less of a threat to people.
One thing to count on is that there are many more viruses in animals that have the potential to “jump” to humans and cause severe disease.
Some estimate that one hundred thousand of these viruses exist. We need a public health surveillance network we can depend on when the next one shows up.
We are Drs. David Niesel and Norbert Herzog, at UTMB and Quinnipiac University, where biomedical discoveries shape the future of medicine. For much more and our disclaimer go to medicaldiscoverynews.com or subscribe to our podcast. Sign up for expanded print episodes at www.illuminascicom.com
