China's Voracious Appetite for Global Wildlife Species

"[The decision] is one I'm only prepared to make with appropriate consideration of the evidence."
"We will need some time to understand the specific measures that are being taken [by China to control the outbreak of the novel cornavirus that erupted in Wuhan, central China last month]."
"[While] China is a sovereign nation with the autonomy to take steps it believes in its interests, [the WHO's role is to provide] rational and science-based [recommendations. We hope the transportation shutdown would be] short in duration."
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyess, director general, World Health Organization

The Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan, China, was closed as part of a shutdown of public transportation — an effort to control the spread of what's being called the Wuhan coronavirus.

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"I think it's [Chinese health authorities decision to close down entrance and exit from Wuhan and several other Chinese cities] really unwise."
"There's very good reason to believe that it could actually backfire very badly [should people start to see the government as oppressing them, sowing fear and mistrust]."
"The most important thing in public health is not to drive the population underground and make them fearful. You want them to cooperate. You want them to report their symptoms. You want them to believe that the government is there to help them and not to violate their rights. It's very, very difficult to control an epidemic once you've lost the trust of the population."
Lawrence Gostin, director, O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University Law Center,Washington

From today until further notice, Wuhan, the city of 11 million people 1,000 kilometres from Beijing, will be in quarantine. Air, bus, ferry and rail terminals are all shut down to prevent the spread of the mystery virus sweeping China and turning up in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Mexico and the United States. A suspected case of the coronavirus has been reported as well in Russia. It first emerged in Wuhan in December and swiftly began spreading. 17 victims have died, and 551 people have been infected. The WHO has decided to hold off on declaring a global health emergency just yet.

Should that occur, affected countries are obligated to officially report cases to the organization giving them the authority to impose trade and travel restrictions. So far the majority of new cases have been diagnosed in China. When the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS) emerged 17 years ago, it infected about eight thousand people worldwide, before it was brought under control, and of that total up to 774 people are known to have died of its effects.

After China, Canada realized the most deaths from SARS, at 44 people succumbing in Toronto, including several health workers. Much is yet a mystery about the virus. There were hopes it would not be transmissible person-to-person, but that hope has been dashed. Speculation is that the virus emerged in bats, and snakes, known for their bat-predation, now carry the virus. Snakes were among the other live animals carried and sold for human consumption in the Wuhan central open-air market, now closed, where the virus is felt to have emerged.

Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China, on January 12, 2020.

NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty Images

"It's difficult on the basis of that [knowing that the novel coronavirus shares a 71 percent similarity in its genome sequence with SARS] to predict exactly how it's going to behave."
"[The WHO meeting scheduled for Thursday] will tell us if we were getting all of the information, because if suddenly what was 300 cases is now 1,700 cases, we need somebody to explain to us how that happens."
"We understand as human beings, the concept of germ theory. We all have a healthy respect for the fear of contagion."
Dr.Dick Zoutman, emeritus professor, departments of pathology and molecular medicine, Queen's University, Kingston

The World Health Organization withheld naming the situation a global pandemic, awaiting more information from China, and feeling that for the present, that country is managing the situation. Unknown definitively as yet is which animals were responsible for transmitting the virus beyond speculation about snake transmission, and how quickly it is spreading from human to human. The pneumonia-like illness caused by the virus leading to fever, coughing and breathing difficulties is spread through coughing and sneezing.

Researchers at Imperial College, London, showed thousands of cases may have emerged but not yet identified. As many as 4,000 people in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, are likely to have been infected, according to the figures they are coming up with. According to Neil Ferguson, professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College, over coming weeks the number of cases would rapidly increase. "It will be much more complicated to estimate for the whole of China". Based in authorities in China warning the virus was quickly "adapting and mutating".

"The virus gradually adapted once it was transmitted from the animals [to humans], and we need more time to study further", stated George Fu Gao, director-general of China's centre for disease control and prevention. For the moment, Mr. Gao added, children and young people don't appear to be susceptible to the virus.

Customers in a Chinese wet market on January 22, 2016.

Edward Wong/South China Morning Post/Getty

"Governments must recognize the global public health threats of zoonotic diseases."
"It is time to close live animal markets that trade in wildlife, strengthen efforts to combat trafficking of wild animals, and work to change dangerous wildlife consumption behaviours, especially in cities."
Christian Walzer, executive director, Wildlife Conservation Society's health program