The origins of viruses: discovery takes time, international resources, and cooperation

[...]for many infectious pathogens, although their origins have been traced back decades, the debate around the origins remains alive. Phylogenetic analysis subsequently suggested that an HIV ancestor had been introduced to Africa before 1959,3 and a relatively recent report, from 2008, revealed that the HIV-1 M group originated in about 1908 (CI 1884–1924) and has been circulating in the population for about 100 years.4 In 2004, human coronavirus HKU1 (HCoV-HKU1) was identified from a patient with pneumonia who returned to Hong Kong from Shenzhen, China.5 However, since then, HCoV-HKU1 positive signals have been detected across the globe and spanning decades: in specimens from Australian children that were collected in 2004,6 in respiratory specimens collected in Connecticut, USA, in 2001–02,7 in Finnish children in 1996–98,8 and in nasopharyngeal swab samples from children in Brazil that were frozen in 1995.9 The virus that causes severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome, SFTSV, was discovered in Henan province, China, in 2009.10 This discovery prompted SFTSV testing of samples obtained from patients in Jiangsu province, China, who had similar clinical manifestations in 2007 but whose aetiology was elusive, with positive results.11 Other researchers tested serum samples from six patients with fever and thrombocytopenia in Yixing County, Jiangsu province, China, in 1996. [...]the experience of on-going progress with HIV, HCoV-HKU1, SFTSV, and MERS-CoV origin studies shows that open-mindedness and close international cooperation are pivotal for tracing the origins of any viruses.