01/20/2020 05:23
(Act. 20.01.2020 05:30)
–
–
–
–
–
In China, the lung disease caused by a previously unknown virus is spreading further. The Chinese authorities announced on Monday for the first time cases that occurred in parts of the country other than the central Chinese metropolis of Wuhan. Accordingly, two cases were registered in Beijing and one in Guangdong. All three patients had previously traveled to Wuhan.
According to the authorities, a third death was caused by the novel corona virus in China. In total, the Chinese authorities announced almost 140 other cases of illnesses caused by the virus. The mysterious pathogen has now been diagnosed in 201 patients in the People’s Republic. 170 of them continued to be treated in hospitals in Wuhan, the local health agency said. The condition of nine of them is serious.
–
In Beijing, two patients were treated for pneumonia, which doctors attributed to the new virus. In Guangdong, southern China, a 66-year-old man has been quarantined for more than a week, whose disease has been linked to the novel virus, the health agency there has now announced.
–
By Sunday, only about 60 cases had been officially confirmed. But researchers at the British Center for the Analysis of Global Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London believe that the spread of the disease is much larger than previously known. According to their probability calculation, the experts estimate the number of patients to be more than 1,700.
–
The bad news of the spread of the virus came a few days before the Chinese New Year next Saturday. Around the festival, millions of Chinese are traveling around the country by train, bus or plane each year, potentially increasing the risk of the virus spreading further.
–
According to the health authorities in Wuhan, the virus first appeared in a local fish market in December. However, some of the infected reportedly had no contact with the fish market. According to official information, transmission from person to person has not yet been proven. However, it cannot “be ruled out” that this will still happen.
–
The experts also warn of a possible transmission of the virus from person to person. China’s health commission warned in Beijing that the origin of the new type of coronavirus has not yet been found. Nor was he sure how people got infected: “The transmission is not yet fully understood.” Nevertheless, experts considered the outbreak to be “controllable”.
–
It is believed that the novel virus comes from the animal world. The initial infections were linked to a now closed Wuhan fish market, which also sold wild animals. Corona viruses often cause harmless diseases such as colds – but pathogens of dangerous respiratory diseases such as SARS and MERS are also included.
–
The new virus comes from the family of pathogens, which also includes the deadly SARS pathogen. SARS stands for “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome”. In 2002 and 2003, almost 350 people in mainland China and almost 300 others in Hong Kong died of the SARS epidemic. Starting in China, around 8,000 people worldwide suffered from lung disease
–
Just over a week ago, experts had decoded the gene sequence of the new virus, which makes testing in patients with pneumonia of unknown cause easier. There are also cases abroad. Two infections were confirmed in Thailand and one case in Wuhan travelers in Japan. However, the three patients had not visited the animal market, where the origin is suspected. This warned experts against human-to-human transmission.
–
The World Health Organization has so far not issued a travel warning for tourists. However, the US Department of Health (CDC) advised travelers to Wuhan to avoid animal markets and to avoid contact with animals or with sick people. “There could be limited human-to-human transmission,” the message said.
–
As a precautionary measure, Asian neighbors have introduced fever controls on immigrants from China. The US airports in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles also carry out health checks on travelers from Wuhan. The risk of transmission of infectious diseases increases with the ongoing wave of travel to the Chinese New Year next Saturday. Hundreds of millions of Chinese people travel in the largest annual migration.
–
– ,