Word: yi
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Despite the doubts cast by other scientists, Yi was still sure there was SARS coronavirus in wildlife markets. Taking into account the possibility that seasonality was a factor in the replication of the coronavirus, he waited until October--about a year since the first cases appeared--and began returning to the Guangdong wild-animal markets every week with his black satchel full of syringes, swabs and sample vials. Working with the Guangzhou CDC and the Shenzhen CDC, he paid $6 for each animal he tested to an animal trader who supplied Dongmen Market. In Guangzhou's Xinyuan Market, Yi would...
...When Yi brought those samples back to Hong Kong, a frightening picture started to emerge. Not only was he again finding the SARS coronavirus in a host of animals--the civet cat, as well as various types of badger--he was astonished, when he did the genomic sequencing, to observe that these coronaviruses had actually mutated to become more similar to the SARS coronavirus samples taken from humans during the outbreak one year ago. All this confirmed that the disease that had infected humans was again at large. The animals that showed the highest infection rate by far were...
...late December, Yi was sitting in his apartment in Hong Kong, smoking and wondering about his way forward. It was only a matter of time before another outbreak would occur, he now believed. There was simply too much interaction between humans and civets for this virus not to make the leap. But it could take months to get a paper peer-reviewed and published so it would impact public health by encouraging the Guangdong government to curtail the civet population--or at least limit contact between humans and the animal. In that time, the disease could again gain a foothold...
...Yi believes deeply in the future of the People's Republic and is forgiving of its occasional foibles, dismissing malfeasances, such as last year's early cover-up of the outbreak, with a shrug. The many top officials he has met, he believes, will always do what is right if they have the relevant information. The problem is getting that data in front of them...
...Yi framed a simple letter to Beijing's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, which he also sent to the Ministry of Health and the China CDC. "With winter coming, the wildlife markets have reopened, providing the perfect conditions for another outbreak of SARS," he wrote. He went on to list his findings that the civet is the major carrier of the SARS coronavirus, that the SARS coronavirus exists in different animals from different regions, that this virus can infect humans and, most frightening, that the "transmitting mechanism for the resurgence of SARS is in place." He enclosed four pages...