Novel dangerous emergent coronavirus infection

The genetic diversity of coronaviruses and their variability are provided by high frequency of recombination of their genomic RNA that assists spontaneous emergence of viruses with new characteristics, which potentially may be agents of novel extremely dangerous and exotic infectious diseases. In December 2019 – January 2020 the novel coronavirus disease, caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus, subsequently named COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease 2019), was revealed in China. The aim of this work is to analyze the possible mechanism of COVID-19 outbreak and the properties of the possible etiological agent of the disease, SARS-CoV-2 virus. A comparison of zoonotic reservoirs of highly pathogenic human coronaviruses, agents of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and SARS-CoV-2, as well as the clinical signs of the diseases, caused by them, are presented. The possible mechanism of epidemic outbreaks is considered. The chronology of COVID-19 outbreak (later escalated into a pandemic) from the beginning of December to the end of March, taxonomical and molecular-biological characteristics of ethiological agent of disease, SARS-CoV-2 virus, and its place on phylogenetic tree of coronaviruses are presented. The main directions of the struggle with the spread of the infection are considered.

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