The number of COVID-19 cases in Taiwan stands at a total of 23 with one death. What's troublesome, is that according to a new US research, COVID-19 will become 20 times more likely to transmit human-to-human after it binds to human cells than SARS. One domestic expert is also worried that COVID-19 may easily induce pulmonary fibrosis, and it could be more difficult to treat than SARS patients.


The worldwide count for COVID-19 exceeds 70,000 with over 2,000 deaths. According to new US research, COVID-19 is 20 times more likely to bind to human cells than SARS.

This is because its ability to bind to receptors are stronger, there's a greater affinity, and thus this virus can enter the lung cells quickly. Previously, with the SARS Coronavirus, it needs to take a bit of time to enter. This will make it (COVID-19) very efficient in propagating inside the lungs.

A domestic expert says SARS was relatively simple to contain because patients with fevers were quarantined. With COVID-19, however, many patients have mild or no symptoms. There are also concerns the virus could lead to pulmonary fibrosis and other conditions. As such, it could be more difficult to treat severe cases of COVID-19 than it was to treat severe cases of SARS.

SARS's way of damaging the lungs are partially via the immune system. Thus, comparatively speaking, it may be easier to use medication to rectify the damage. If a great percentage of the damage is purely by the virus, then it is harder to manage via simple medication. The damage and inflammation in the lungs will be more difficult to treat.

While researchers have tried treating COVID-19 with a combination of flu drugs, HIV drugs and Ebola drug Remdesivir along with plasma therapy, there haven't been any real results. The expert says the most effective form of prevention would be a vaccine and this is where efforts should be focused.



武漢肺炎疫情在全球蔓延，累計共有7萬多個確診個案，2千多例死亡。美國科學家最新研究發現，2019新型冠狀病毒與人類細胞受體結合，造成傳染的能力，最高可達SARS病毒的20倍。

台大醫院小兒部主任 黃立民表示：「因為它跟受體結合的能力比較強，親和度比較高，所以這隻病毒呢，很快就進入肺部細胞，以前SARS的冠狀病毒呢，可能還要花一點時間才進得去，這樣會使得它在肺部的繁殖，會變得很有效率。」

國內專家表示，過去SARS感染者、只要發燒篩檢疑似病人，就能有效阻隔傳播，但新型冠狀病毒感染者有輕症，甚至無症狀，要全面防堵不容易，最令人擔心的是，冠狀病毒容易引發肺部纖維化等後遺症，新型冠狀病毒重症患者、可能比SARS重症還難救治。

台大醫院小兒部主任 黃立民表示：「SARS的肺部破壞呢，有一部分可能來自於免疫系統，免疫系統的肺部破壞，其實相對上來講，可能比較容易用藥物來矯正，如果單純的病毒破壞，占很大比例的話呢，就比較難用藥物矯正了，所以整個肺部的發炎跟破壞，就比較難治療。」

專家強調，雖然有醫界嘗試採用抗伊波拉病毒的「瑞德西韋」藥物，或愛滋病藥加流感藥物，甚至「康復者血漿」療法，但臨床上都還需要更多實證，具體做法要加速疫苗的研發，才能有效抑制新型冠狀病毒所引發的武漢肺炎。