The SARS-CoV-2 transmission riddle - Part 7

The contribution of the University of Wisconsin to the study of coronaviridae and rhinoviridae

As we have seen in Riddle 6, respiratory viruses have been the source of investigation for at least a century. Shope, the discoverer of swine influenza and Smith, Laidlaw and Andrewes, discoverers of the human variety, could not visualise the agent, although they could filter it from human washouts. They knew the agent was there, but visualisation had to wait until the advent of the electron microscope a few years later. 

However, through several studies and serendipity, researchers soon realised that the influenza virus was not the only “kid on the block”. Various other viral respiratory agents were discovered after influenza, each with a different shape and structure but all more or less causing the same signs and symptoms: those of influenza-like illness (ILI).

For each of these newly discovered agents, the questions posed by researchers could be categorised broadly into three themes: 

1. What is the portal of entry into the human body, and how does it transmit? 

2. What is the incubation pe…