A 4th death from the coronavirus has been confirmed in South Korea. The country has 41 cases of infection, with risks that the virus crosses borders.
South Korea is afraid! The South Korean Ministry of Health announced on Friday a fourth fatal case of MERS – CoV coronavirus and five new cases of contamination (41 in total). Evidence of the psychosis that has reigned in Seoul for two weeks, nearly 2,000 people have been placed in quarantine or under observation. And more than 1,000 schools, from kindergarten to high school, have now closed. Finally, the free phone number provided by the government is overflowing with calls from increasingly panicked Koreans.
The danger of asymptomatic cases
Residents fear, in fact, a spread in the country of MERS – CoV, a virus originating in Saudi Arabia more lethal but less contagious than that of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which had killed nearly 800 people in the country. world in 2003.
And precisely, this weight of South Korea in the world economy also worries other countries. Frequent air travel to the Asian continent (Hong Kong, Seoul, Beijing hub…) make experts fear that an infected person could move outside Asia. Contacted by Why actor, Professor Didier Raoult, Director of the Emerging Infectious and Tropical Diseases Unit at the Marseille Faculty of Medicine, discusses recent data on MERS – CoV which shows a large number of asymptomatic cases.
“The fact that there are now planes everywhere and people roaming around with undeclared or minor forms obviously increases the threat of spreading it all over the place. Today, like humans, infectious diseases no longer have borders. If the virus lands in France or elsewhere, it will inevitably come by plane from someone sick, ”confides this specialist at the head of the Microbiology Laboratory of Marseille Hospitals.
Prof. Didier Raoult, head of department at the Marseille Hospitals Microbiology Laboratory: ” Data released in June show that for MERS-CoV, part of the population in direct contact with camels has antibodies against this virus without having had any illness.… “
The plane is more at risk than the “hubs”
Moreover, if the virus is found today in South Korea, it is because of a businessman infected with the virus who flew to a country in the Middle East to go to South Korea. Another example of this risk, in China, where the first case of a patient with the coronavirus has been confirmed by the authorities in Beijing, the WHO said on Friday.
This is a South Korean national who arrived Tuesday in the province of Guangdong, in the south of the country, again passing through an airport, that of Hong Kong in this case. Aged 44, the patient was in close contact with his father, who was already infected. He is currently in solitary confinement at a hospital in Huizhou and intentionally ignored quarantine instructions to go on a business trip.
In this regard, Professor Raoult confirms that even if the disease is not very contagious, the risk of transmitting it is greater by plane than elsewhere. “For example for tuberculosis, but especially noroviruses, we have seen that they are very contagious in airplanes. Known to be the most common cause of diarrhea in developed countries, noroviruses can be transmitted easily to people on airplanes, especially if they are seated on the aisles or near the toilets. ”
Prof. Didier Raoult: “ Most respiratory infections have very low rates of infection. The risk of transmission in public places are more film or cinema fears. On the other hand, inside planes it exists… “
To give credence to Professor Raoult’s comments, it suffices to follow the journey already taken by the new coronavirus since its appearance two years ago. As of June 1, 2015, 1,152 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS-CoV infection had been reported to the World Health Organization, and 434 people had died.
The WHO specifies that 24 countries have notified it of cases: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar and Yemen, for the Middle East ; Algeria and Tunisia, in Africa; Germany, Austria, France (two confirmed cases including one fatal), Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Turkey, for Europe; South Korea, China, Malaysia and the Philippines in Asia; and the United States for North America.
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