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The coronavirus could be up to 1,000 times more infectious than SARS because it plagues the body in the same way as HIV and Ebola, scientists warn. 

Experts initially presumed the spread of COVID-19 would follow the same trajectory as the SARS outbreak in 2002/3, because the viruses are almost identical genetically.

But they have discovered the way it binds to cells in the human body is akin to far more aggressive diseases like HIV and Ebola.

This makes it '100 to 1,000 times' more efficient at infecting people than SARS, according to researchers from Nankai University in Tianjin, northern China.