So far, Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn has been reassuring about the potential introduction of the 2019-nCoV Chinese virus in France. “The risk is low but not excluded”, she assured Tuesday. After stays in Wuhan, the cradle of the disease, two suspected cases were in fact“Revealed negative”. The recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO), which estimated Thursday that it was “Too early to declare a public health emergency of international concern”, went in the same direction.
But on Friday evening, the minister confirmed the existence of two cases in France. The first, from Gironde, is 48 years old. He consulted for symptoms on January 23, after returning from China via Wuhan for work. “He has been hospitalized since yesterday in Bordeaux, in an isolated room. He has been in contact with a dozen people since his arrival ”, said Agnes Buzyn during a press briefing. The second infected, detected in Paris, was put in solitary confinement at Bichat hospital in 18e borough. “We know this person has traveled to China, but we do not know if they have stayed in Wuhan”, said Duquesne Avenue tenant. Late Friday evening, the health ministry announced that a third case had been confirmed in the capital. This “Close relative” of the Paris patient was also placed in segregation.
The best way to spread a disease is to go directly to the emergency room, where you will be in contact with others.
Yazdan Yazdanpanah, head of the infectious diseases department at Bichat hospital
Less confident than two days ago, Agnès Buzyn admitted that he is now “Likely there are other cases in Europe”. And to add:“You have to treat an epidemic like you treat a fire, quickly locate the source” and the “Circumscribe as quickly as possible”. For health services, the objective is now to “Tell the story of these positive patients in order to get in touch with the people they met”, recalled Buzyn. The latter argued that the incubation period of the coronavirus would be “Around seven days, between two and twelve days”.
People with whom infected patients have been in contact were asked to take their temperature several times a day, contact Center 15 if they had any symptoms and stay at home. Going to the emergency room is strongly prohibited.“The best way to spread a disease is to go directly to the emergency room, where you will be in contact with others”, analyzes Yazdan Yazdanpanah, head of the infectious diseases department at Bichat hospital.
On the health services side, the international epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)) in 2002-2003 is in everyone’s mind. This disease had affected nearly 8,100 people, killing 774. “Since that time, we have changed the way we work. Infrastructures have been put in place, people have been trained, we do exercises regularly. In Paris, Bichat Hospital and Pitié-Salpêtrière are specialized in this kind of infections, “says Yazdan Yazdanpanah, also director of the Institute of Infectious Disease at Inserm. According to the professor, many calls have already been recorded by centers 15 in France and in Parisian hospitals.
Internally, vigilance instructions were sent to healthcare personnel.“It’s serious, we have a real epidemic, but the risk of spread remains very low in Europe and in France”, tempers the expert. Agnes Buzyn, she wanted to be almost resigned on Friday, finding that it was impossible to control the multiple routes to return from the Middle Kingdom. “We can see the difficulty in closing the borders in a world like ours, it is really not possible.”
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