Coronavirus outbreaks aren’t rare and will likely occur every decade or so. Research published in May 2021 has identified a canine corona virus in patients hospitalized with pneumonia. The samples came from patients at a hospital in Malaysia, taken by a collaborator in 2017 and 2018.
Virologist Xuming Zhang says he wouldn’t be surprised if this dog virus is, in fact, a new human pathogen. He thinks that the more scientists look for unknown coronaviruses inside pneumonia patients, the more they are going to find.
Source: NPR, May 20, 2021. Link. The virus does not appear to be passed between humans but this is further evidence of why One Health matters to all of us.
INSIGHTS: Diagnostics remain a new frontier in human and animal medicine. Zhang is correct when he says we need to look deeper by doing more testing in people – and animals – to seek out these strange, hidden infections before they become problems.