New Delhi: As the discovery of HKU5-CoV, a newly identified bat virus in China has already created a ripple across the globe, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has asked the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to keep monitoring the situation and ascertain whether it is found in India or not.
"We are aware about the discovery of the bat virus- HKU5-CoV in China. Although the discovery is in its initial stage, we have asked the ICMR to monitor the situation," said a senior official in the health ministry. However, health experts allayed fears that the newly discovered bat virus could be dangerous.
"We have already witnessed the COVID-19. And we are aware of the characteristics of the virus. The newly discovered virus in China could be infectious but it's not dangerous," renowned virologist Dr Jayprakash Muliyil told ETV Bharat.
Dr Muliyil, who was associated with ICMR for a long time said that 99 per cent of the people, when infected with a virus, generate symptoms like body ache, fever and all.
"Majority of the Indian population have already generated a strong immune system especially following COVID-19 vaccination. So, we don’t have to worry much about any new virus," said Dr Muliyil.
HKU5-CoV-2 is a newly identified bat coronavirus discovered in China, raising concerns about its potential for animal-to-human transmission because it uses the same human receptor as the virus that causes COVID-19
"It belongs to the merbecovirus subgenus, which also includes the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus. Researchers have found that HKU5-CoV-2 can bind to human ACE2 receptors with lesser affinity, a key mechanism used by SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19 virus) to infect cells," said Dr Tamorish Kole, renowned health expert and Chair of the Clinical Practice Committee at the International Federation for Emergency Medicine.
Laboratory tests showed that HKU5-CoV-2 could infect human cell cultures in mini-organ models, suggesting a risk of spillover. However, while the virus has the potential for zoonotic transmission, scientists have not confirmed its ability to cause human disease.
"Experts believe that its pandemic potential is not high as global immunity to SARS-like viruses has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic, which could help reduce the risk of widespread transmission," said Dr Kole.
ICMR Study
Bats are considered to be the natural reservoir for many viruses, of which some are potential human pathogens. In India, an association of Pteropus medius bats with the Nipah virus was reported in the past. It was also suspected that acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) also has its association with bats. To assess the presence of CoVs in bats, ICMR performed identification and characterisation of bat CoV (BtCoV) in P. medius and Rousettus species from representative States in India, collected during 2018 and 2019.
Viruses Identified From Bat Species
A large number of emerging infectious diseases are known to be zoonotic in origin. In the last two decades, many viruses have been identified from bat species. Bats have been recognised as the natural reservoirs of a variety of pathogenic viruses such as Rabies, Hendra, Marburg, Nipah and Ebola virus. Bats are known to harbour coronaviruses (CoVs) and serve as their reservoirs. Alpha-CoV (α-CoV) and beta-CoV (β-CoV) have been detected in bats in Asia, Europe, Africa, North and South America and Australasia.
"In the last two decades, bat CoVs (BtCoVs) garnered considerable attention as potential human pathogens. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV-2 causing the pandemic (COVID-19) is also a member of the same genus and found to be similar to bat-derived CoV strain RATG13. SARS-CoV-2 is reported to be 96 per cent identical to BtCoV at the whole genome level, and related viruses were identified in the previously sampled bat population in China," the ICMR has stated.
