The first patient suffering from Covid-19 in Italy is “Mattia”: on February 20, the 38-year-old man reported fever, flu symptoms and difficulty breathing in the emergency room of the Codogno hospital in Lombardy. He is still in intensive care. On Sunday, just 18 days later, the number of people infected with the coronavirus in Italy was more than 6,000. And the Italians ask themselves: Why did it hit our country so badly?
Probably not recognized equally in all corona viruses
The experts are now pretty much in agreement: The main reason is that the virus was able to spread unnoticed for weeks. “We only discovered the fire when almost the entire house was on fire,” says Massimo Galli, an infectious disease specialist from Milan. “Mattia” was just not “Patient 1”, as was initially suspected.
Epidemiological projections would suggest that the virus had already started to circulate in Italy in early or mid-January at the latest. So a month or more before “Mattia” got sick.
The real “patient 1”, says Galli, probably had no symptoms of the disease and never dreamed that he was carrying the virus. He is still unknown today – and has unknowingly infected an unknown number of other people, who would have spread the virus.
It is also possible that the first corona patients with symptoms that had reported to the hospitals were not recognized as such: it was the flu season, and the problems of the respiratory tract and lungs typical for Covid-19 were among them Doctors have been interpreted as normal flu complications. “The fact that it happened here in Italy is more of a coincidence. It could have happened in any other country.”
[CoronaVirusFAQ:[Coronavirus-FAQ:Read 55 important questions and answers here to SARS-CoV-2]
Experts also point out that at the time the virus was believed to come to Italy, information from the Wuhan corona epicenter was rather vague. The epidemic in China was still “far away” for all governments, and no one, either in Europe or in the United States, considered measures at the time. Italy was the first country in Europe at the end of January to block its airports from China. Today we know that the virus had long been in the country. So far, Italy has done almost everything right, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
In Italy, the large Chinese community in their own country was initially held responsible for the epidemic; there was discrimination and insult. Around 300,000 Chinese live in Italy; the assumption that one of them might have brought the virus to Italy sounded plausible.
Background about the corona virus:
Only: In the previous “red zones” of Codogno and Vo ‘, not a single Chinese has been tested positive for the virus. This also applies to the Tuscan city of Prato, where around 45,000 Chinese work in poor conditions in textile factories run by their own countrymen. Even on the Roman Esquilin Hill, which has become a veritable Chinatown with hundreds of China snacks and junk shops, no Corona case is known yet.
It is therefore most likely at the moment that the virus has come to Italy and Europe as a kind of collateral damage from globalization: Especially in northern Italy, there are numerous international companies that are actively trading with China and – at least until the epidemic breaks out – theirs Representatives regularly sent to China on business trips and received Chinese business partners. Just like all other European companies doing business with China.
Paolo Bonanni, professor of hygiene in Florence, is also convinced that Italy is just a week or two ahead of neighboring countries in the number of corona cases. “The development in other countries will probably be similar to ours,” says Bonanni. But the neighbors could benefit from the experience in Italy: “If our measures take effect, they can be introduced a little earlier by the other countries.” Italy has become “a laboratory for other countries”.
–
