Giving Compass' Take:

• James Gallagher reports on a mystery virus that was previously unknown to science is causing severe lung disease in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

• How can we prevent animal-borne viruses? How can we curb the spreading of little known viruses?

• Here's how to defeat science deniers and devastating viruses together. 

More than 50 people have been infected. Seven are currently in a critical condition.

A new virus arriving on the scene, leaving patients with pneumonia, is always a worry and health officials around the world are on high alert.

But is this a brief here-today-gone-tomorrow outbreak or the first sign of something far more dangerous?

What is this virus?
Viral samples have been taken from patients and analysed in the laboratory.

And officials in China and the World Health Organization have concluded the infection is a coronavirus.

Coronaviruses are a broad family of viruses, but only six (the new one would make it seven) are known to infect people.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), which is caused by a coronavirus, killed 774 of the 8,098 people infected in an outbreak that started in China in 2002.

"There is a strong memory of Sars, that's where a lot of fear comes from, but we're a lot more prepared to deal with those types of diseases," says Dr Josie Golding, from the Wellcome Trust.

Read the full article about this mystery Chinese virus by James Gallagher at BBC.