A new form of coronavirus pneumonia has emerged in China. It seems to have developed in a market in Wuhan where live wild animals and meat were sold. From a genetic point of view, there is "80% similarities" between this new virus and the SARS virus which emerged in 2002 (Institut Pasteur Paris). The SARS epidemic started in Guangdong Province, in southeast China. It is believed to have originated from a bat virus which had mutated in a living civet and which had been transmitted to humans following the consumption of infected civet meat (INSERM Paris). This new virus could have developed following the same type of evolution.

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