New Delhi, Feb 22: The newly discovered bat coronavirus — HKU5-CoV-2 — can spread to humans like Covid-19, said experts on Saturday, raising fresh health concerns.

HKU5-CoV-2 was identified by a team of Chinese virologists led by Shi Zhengli, a renowned scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. She is also known as “Batwoman” for her extensive research on coronaviruses, particularly the SARS-CoV-2 virus — responsible for the deadly pandemic that claimed millions of lives.

The discovery raises concerns about the possibility of another zoonotic spillover. HKU5-CoV-2 belongs to the merbecovirus subgenus, which includes the MERS-CoV virus that caused the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak.

Zhengli’s team had, a few years ago, discovered the HKU lineage of coronaviruses in bats from Hong Kong, but it lacked the ability to infect human cells.

On the other hand, “HKU5-CoV-2 is able to bind to human ACE-2 receptors and infect lab cell models of human lungs and intestines. It is also capable of binding to ACE-2 receptors in other mammals, which means it could theoretically spread from animals to man and vice versa,” said Rajeev Jayadevan, Chairman of the Kerala State IMA Research Cell, told media.

The expert noted that Wuhan researchers have not provided a comparison between HKU5-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-2 in their ability to infect human cells.

However, Gautam Menon, Dean, Research, at Ashoka University said that the HKU5-CoV-2 does not have pandemic potential. “From what we know as of now, this is unlikely to be significant. HKU5-CoV-2 has interesting similarities to Covid-19 and to some other coronaviruses known to infect humans, but that isn’t enough to infer that it will spread between humans in a way that could cause a pandemic,” Menon told IANS.

He further noted that wide exposure to SARS-CoV-2 virus may provide immunity against the new bat coronavirus. “The fact that most people on the planet have been exposed to Covid-19 by now should also protect against viruses, such as HKU5-CoV-2,” Menon said, while stressing the need to continue research in this area to prepare for any contingency.

Jayadevan that while research on viruses that naturally live in bats is important, studying these viruses in laboratories also carries inherent risks.

“If proper biosecurity measures are not followed, there is a potential for accidental spillover to humans. To mitigate these risks, many labs studying high-risk pathogens operate under stringent Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) protocols,” he said.

He emphasised the need to decrease interactions between bats and humans. “Viruses are known to recombine with each other, creating new versions with greater abilities. This study is a reminder that viruses living naturally in other animals remain a threat for future pandemics in man, and reducing bat-human interactions is one way to lower the risk of spillovers,” Jayadevan said.

Kolkata, Feb 22: Over six months have passed since the shocking rape and murder of a junior woman doctor at Kolkata’s R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital but her parents are still to get a copy of her death certificate.

The body of the victim was recovered from a seminar hall within the premises of the state-run institution early on August 9 last year.

The victim’s parents have alleged that they have been unable to get the death certificate till now as the R.G. Kar and Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) authorities are shifting the responsibility onto each other.

According to them, the KMC authorities are claiming that since the “place of death” is R.G. Kar, it is the responsibility of the hospital authorities to provide the death certificate.

On the other, the R.G. Kar authorities claim that if a patient dies within the hospital premises or is even brought dead to the hospital, the death certificate will have to be provided by the KMC authorities, the parents added.

The victim’s parents have further claimed that although they have not got a copy of the death certificate, it has been mentioned in the court documents, as per the statement of a medical officer attached to R.G. Kar.

They now say if the death certificate is mentioned in the court documents, why was a copy of the certificate not handed over to them?

Last week, a special court in Kolkata, which had convicted and sentenced civic volunteer Sanjay Roy in the rape and murder case, directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file a fresh progress report on its investigation in the matter on February 24.

Since the special court has already pronounced the sentence for the convict in the main crime of rape and murder, legal circles feel that the fresh progress report will be related to the angle of tampering with the evidence in the case.

It is learnt that the special court had directed the CBI to submit a fresh progress report following a complaint filed by the counsel of the victim’s family accusing the central agency of not updating the court on the progress of investigation in the matter periodically.

Bengaluru, Feb 21: The Karnataka government has sought assistance from the Union Health Minister in countering the menace of sale of drugs which have failed tests and further appealed to ensure steps to withdraw contaminated drugs from market all across India.

Minister for Health Dinesh Gundu Rao wrote a letter on Friday to the Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda in this regard.

“I am writing to bring to your attention the repeated instances of sale within Karnataka of contaminated injectable drugs manufactured in other states.

“Between January 1 and February 16, nine injectable drugs manufactured in other states failed sterility testing in our state government laboratories. The details of drugs, along with batch numbers, are provided in the annexure to this letter,” Minister Rao stated.

This list does not include numerous injectables manufactured by Paschim Banga Pharmaceuticals based in West Bengal, whose contaminated injectables caused the deaths of five young mothers in Ballari district of Karnataka, Rao said.

“While I am instructing my department to take adequate steps to ensure these drugs are no longer sold within Karnataka, it is highly likely that other contaminated drugs manufactured by these companies are being sold in other states in India. Injectables, as you are aware, are used in acute care and therefore are high risk to patients.

“Given the ‘life or death’ consequences for patients being administered these contaminated drugs, I request you to use your good offices to ensure that all products sold by these companies are withdrawn from the market across India and that these companies are not allowed to sell any more drugs until they are inspected by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) for compliance with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP),” Rao urged.

Minister Rao further requested, “In addition, I also request you to create a system for all states and central laboratories to share alerts with each other regarding drugs which have failed quality testing, especially those failures which could potentially cause serious adverse events for patients.”

He further suggested, “In addition to sharing alerts with each other there should also be a legal requirement to share sales records from the manufacturer to enable seizure of the contaminated drugs from the supply chain before they are dispensed to patients.

“Lastly, we need a system to alert doctors, pharmacists and patients about the drugs that are failing testing in our respective testing laboratories. My department would be glad to assist in this regard.”

Rao has ended the letter stating that he is anticipating a positive response in this regard.