The mysterious respiratory illness that appeared in China at the end of December is believed to be linked to a seafood market held in Wuhan in central China. A new case has been identified in Thailand, worries the WHO on Monday, January 13. The virus is said to have many similarities to SARS which claimed hundreds of lives in Asia in the early 2000s.
A few weeks ago, the Chinese authorities reported an outbreak of an unidentified respiratory disease on their territory. Today, the first case of this mysterious disease has been identified in Thailand, the World Health Organization announced on Monday January 13 (WHO), stating that the patient was a traveler from China. Immediately hospitalized, she is now recovering from the disease. Even more alarming: despite the reassuring declarations of the authorities, this disease obviously belongs to the same family as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) which caused hundreds of deaths in Asia in 2002-2003.
This disease, whose symptoms resemble those of pneumonia, appeared at the end of December in Wuhan in central China. Since then, at least 59 cases have been reported in the territory and a 61-year-old man has died. According to the website of South China Morning Postthe source of this disease would have been identified: the patients are mainly business operators in a fish market in Wuhan.
The municipality of Wuhan therefore ordered the closure of the market where disinfection operations and analyzes took place. “It appears most likely that the outbreak of the disease is associated with having been exposed to a seafood market in Wuhan. (…) At this stage, none of the healthcare workers have been affected and there is no tangible evidence of human-to-human transmission,” WHO said today. .
Sharing the genetic sequencing of the virus
Since then, Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous region hard hit by the SARS epidemic in 2002-2003, has taken its precautions by identifying the disinfection of trains and planes as well as the control of passengers. Especially since the outbreak came during the busiest travel time of the year, the Lunar New Year holiday. Therefore, the US Embassy in Beijing has also recommended that Americans traveling in the country avoid animals and contact with sick people.
On Saturday January 11, the Hong Kong Health Department announced that genetic sequencing of the virus found in one of the Wuhan patients showed it to be 80% similar to SARS found in bats. Sharing this sequencing “allows more countries to quickly diagnose patients”, welcomes the WHO.
This virus has “coronavirus-like morphology”, characterized by a crown shape visible under an electron microscope. But, in addition to its mode of transmission, we also do not know its origin and its incubation period.
Active monitoring
“The possibility of cases being identified in other countries was not unexpected and reinforces why WHO is calling for active surveillance and continued preparedness in other countries,” the organization says, before continuing. “Given the evolution of the situation, the Director General of the WHO, Doctor Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, will consult the members of the Emergency Committee and could convene a meeting of this committee at short notice”. In the meantime, investigations must continue in China to identify the source of the outbreak and any animal reservoirs or intermediate hosts, the statement concluded.
In the early 2000s, SARS, a highly contagious respiratory disease, killed nearly 800 people in mainland China, Hong Kong and surrounding areas. “The data indicates an incubation period of two to ten days, allowing the infectious agent to be transported from one city to another without being suspected or detected”, explained David Heymann, executive director for communicable diseases at the time. at WHO, New Obs.
Eight months after the first observed case (China had first tried to cover up the affair), by dint of research (the causative agent was a coronavirus hitherto unknown to man) and quarantines, the pandemic had finally been brought under control. In total, it would have cost some 54 billion euros and a decline of 2% of the GDP of Southeast Asia during this period.
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