CHORUS SARS-CoV-2

Coronaviruses are single positive-stranded RNA viruses belonging to Coronaviridae family, which are divided into four genera: Alpha-, Beta-, Delta- and Gammacoronavirus.
CoVs are commonly found in many species of animals. Occasionally, the animal CoVs can acquire genetic mutations by errors during genome replication or recombination mechanism, which can further expand their tropism to humans. A total of six human CoV types were identified to be responsible for causing human respiratory ailments, which include two alpha CoVs and four beta CoVs (the most recent two are SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV). Typically, these CoVs cause asymptomatic infection or severe acute respiratory illness, including fever, cough, and shortness of breath. However, other symptoms such as gastroenteritis and neurological diseases of varying severity have also been reported. Since December 2019, the seventh novel human betacoronavirus (2019-nCoV) causing pneumonia outbreak was reported by the World Health Organization. This novel virus is linked with an outbreak of febrile respiratory illness in the city of Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. Some patients with 2019-nCoV have developed severe pneumonia, pulmonary oedema, ARDS, or multiple organ failure and have died. At present, information regarding the epidemiology and clinical features of pneumonia caused by 2019-nCoV is scarce. The monitoring of antibodies’ titer can serve as an indication of the status of infection: during the first days, IgA and IgM appear; as the disease progresses, IgG becomes predominant.