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We are at a critical phase in the coronavirus outbreak and there cannot be any complacency as to the need for global action. This special lecture as part of the Global Health Lecture Series in partnership with the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team (UK-PHRST) - a partnership between LSHTM and Public Health England funded by UK Aid - will include talks from LSHTM experts involved in different aspects of research on coronavirus and providing expert guidance to those responding around the globe. Speakers will include experts from our Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases who are regularly publishing data in their repository, and from our African MRC Units who are actively involved in planning should the outbreak reach the continent, and the UK-PHRST as the primary arm to provide and coordinate the UK’s public health response to outbreaks in low- and middle-income countries.

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that include the common cold, but also more severe diseases like the SARS outbreak in 2003, and MERS which first appeared in Jordan in 2012. They can cause respiratory issues, coughing, shortness of breath, fever, and in severe cases pneumonia, kidney failure, and death.

Knowledge on the novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV is evolving every day. The origin of the current outbreak, which has spread to 21 countries so far, started in a seafood market in Wuhan and was first reported to the WHO on 31 December. It is a new strain of coronavirus which has never been identified in humans before, jumping from a yet unidentified animal species in the market to humans. More than 7,700 cases have been confirmed and more than 170 people have died.

Read the latest expert comment and analysis on coronavirus from LSHTM researchers in our media highlights. Listen and subscribe to LSHTM Viral, a new global health podcast focusing on the science behind the the coronavirus outbreak and global response.