On the day that the entry of the new coronavirus in Europe was confirmed, with two cases diagnosed in France, two studies brought more data about the disease. The main conclusions? The virus does not only affect people with underlying health problems, and even without symptoms, people can carry the virus.
In one of the investigations – both presented in the Lancet magazine – the clinical data of the first 41 patients hospitalized with the infection were analyzed in the central city of Wuhan, China, where the outbreak is believed to have originated. The average age of patients was around 49 years.
Patients had a wide range of symptoms, many of them similar to those detected in those infected with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), whose global outbreak in 2002-2003 also began in China. They all developed pneumonia and most started complaining of fever and cough. Fatigue, headaches and diarrhea were more rare symptoms.
Different aspects were found as well. “Despite sharing some SARS-like symptoms (eg, fever, dry cough, shortness of breath), there are some important differences, such as the absence of upper respiratory tract symptoms,” explained the study’s lead author, Bin Cao, the China-Japan Friendship Hospital and the Capital Medical University of China.
Some of the fatal cases caused by the virus occurred among people with underlying diseases, such as diabetes, liver disease and hypertension, but an important finding was that most of the first 41 patients were healthy.
Asymptomatic infection seems possible
The second article focused on a family who had pneumonia in Shenzhen. Five members had been in Wuhan and had the virus, like another family member, who had not traveled.
So far, authorities have only confirmed the transmission of the virus from person to person between families and at health clinics – situations where people are likely to be in close contact, according to the World Health Organization. This appears to be the case with studied family. Still, health officials do not know exactly the degree to which the virus can be transmitted between people.
A child infected with the virus did not have any symptoms, which raises the question of whether people need to show signs of the disease in order to transmit it.
“As asymptomatic infection seems possible, controlling the epidemic will also depend on isolating patients, screening and quarantining contacts as early as possible,” warned Kwok-Yung Yuen of the Hong Kong-Shenzhen University Hospital, who led this research. .
The authors of both studies noted several study limitations, including the fact that, due to the limited number of cases, it is difficult to assess the risk factors for the severity and mortality of the disease and require further studies in an outpatient and community setting to confirm the entire clinical spectrum of the disease.
China announced on Friday the death of a person due to the coronavirus, near the border with Russia – the second outside the epicenter of the outbreak – increasing the number of fatalities to 26. The new type of coronavirus has already been registered in 29 of the country’s 31 provinces.
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