'Hundreds' Likely Affected By Virus: Researchers

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'Hundreds' likely affected by virus: researchers

London, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Jan, 2020 ) :The number of people infected by a mystery SARS-like virus is likely hundreds more than officially reported, researchers have said.

Authorities have said pneumonia linked to the virus has hit at least 41 people, with the outbreak centred around a seafood market.

But a paper published Friday by scientists with the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College in London said the number of those affected was likely to be well over a thousand.

The scientists at the Centre -- which advises bodies including the World Health Organization -- said they estimated a "total of 1,723 cases" would have been infected as of January 12.

The researchers took the number of cases so far -- two in Thailand and one in Japan.

"I am substantially more concerned than I was a week ago," adding, however, that it was "too early to be alarmist".

"People should be considering the possibility of substantialhuman-to-human transmission more seriously than they have so far," he added, saying it was "unlikely" that animal exposure was the main source of infection.

Two people are known to have been killed by the virus, a pathogen from the same family as the deadly SARS virus -- even as health authorities around the world sought to assure the public that the overall risk of infection remained low.