Since the appearance of the coronavirus, Covid-19, health workers in the canton have had a watchword: inform. After a conference of the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) for medical personnel, it was the University of Geneva (UNIGE) ‘s turn to organize an event. Tuesday, before the announcement of the first case of Swiss contamination in Ticino, a panel of experts met at Uni Dufour to answer questions from the public and to sort out the true from the false. Back on a few points.
Who is most affected? Anyone can be reached. But those most affected by a serious development seem to be mainly the elderly or those already suffering from a chronic disease.
Why does the mortality rate fluctuate? It is difficult to establish a general rate because the statistics do not include people who are not hospitalized. During the conference, the experts insisted on the image of the iceberg: we focus on the most affected patients – the tip – but many infections fall between the cracks because they have no expressions clinical – the submerged part, summarized Antoine Flahaut, director of the Institute of Global Health of the Faculty of Medicine. However, the virus is benign in 80% of cases. Laurent Kaiser, head of the Infectious Diseases Service, added that at the start of the epidemic, the reported mortality was 15%. “Now it’s around 3% in mainland China. Outside the country, between 20 and 30 deaths are reported, out of 2000 to 2500 people diagnosed. The number could increase but for now, we are approaching the seasonal flu mortality. “
After being contaminated, does one become resistant? “We don’t yet know if people are immune,” says Laurent Kaiser. What we do know is that with the usual coronaviruses (note: there are six others affecting humans), we remain protected but for a limited time. “
Can a package from China be contaminated? “No,” replied the specialist. The virus cannot survive in an envelope, under the conditions of transport. He needs a special environment to survive. “
Does the virus survive in the air? “He needs an envelope of mucus to survive, explains Laurent Kaiser. In ambient air, on the fingers for example, its survival is extremely short. It is not a resistant virus as can be those that cause gastroenteritis. “
Stay rational: Jacques-André Romand, cantonal doctor, called for “putting an ordinary dimension” to the articulated figures. “In Geneva, there are eight deaths per day on average for 500,000 inhabitants. In proportion, for 1 billion and a half inhabitants, that is 25,000 per day. Since the start of the epidemic, more than 800,000 Chinese have died from “ordinary” illnesses, compared to 2,000 people who have died from the coronavirus. ” The specialist also calls for “staying rational”. “I heard that doctors issue certificates of good health, that banks have put in preventive quarantine of collaborators returning from China, that people ask HUG” the test “to detect the coronavirus … If you are asymptomatic, you are not contagious, whether you come back from China or Italy! ”
Created: 02.25.2020, 7.46 p.m.
–
