A patient who entered the surgery department with abdominal pain infected at least 10 health professionals, according to a study by researchers and doctors in Wuhan and published this Friday in the American medical magazine JAMA.
Seventeen people who were hospitalized for other reasons were also infected with the new coronavirus during their stay at the health center.
In total, 41% of the 138 cases of people treated for coronavirus in this hospital between 1 and 28 January contracted the disease in the establishment itself.
The study was published hours after death of Wuhan ophthalmologist who was punished for sounding the alert in late December about the emerging epidemic. Li Wenliang, 34, was reportedly infected by one of his patients.
The news about his death provoked strong reactions on the Chinese social network Weibo.
At Zhongnan Hospital, staff in general care units accounted for the majority of infected cases (31 out of 40), followed by those in emergency and intensive care units.
One patient infected three others who were in the same unit, where they were being treated for abdominal pain.
The example of the patient who infected ten people alone is a sample of the hospital’s risks in the first phase of the epidemic when, on average, it is currently estimated that one infected person will contaminate another 2,2.
“If true, this confirms that some patients are probably more contagious than others, which creates new difficulties for case management,” said doctor Michael Head, from the University of Southampton, via The Science Media Center.
A senior Chinese provincial official on Thursday admitted that medical personnel lacked masks and special suits to protect themselves from the new virus.
The latest official report points to a total of 34,394 confirmed cases of the new viral infection worldwide.
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