NewsDialy
A catalog of RNA viruses, meaning viruses whose genetic code is stored in ribonucleic acid rather than DNA, now ranks the 239 species known to infect humans by their potential to cause a public health emergency.
The catalog was assembled by a team led by Mark Woolhouse, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, to help scientists decide immediately how seriously to treat the next unknown pathogen found in a patient.
Scientists typically discover two or three never-before-seen human viruses each year; the catalog gives them a framework for sorting the dangerous from the forgettable.
Why transmissibility, not severity, is the dividing line The catalog separates viruses by one decisive variable: whether they can pass between people.
Keep reading