Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Mission: Slowing Transmission of Wuhan Coronavirus

"[There have been] concerning instances [of transmission from people who had not been to China]."
"It could be the spark that becomes a bigger fire."
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Geneva

"We now know the new cases [of novel coronavirus] announced today are all closely linked to one another."
"Two of these new cases are health care workers."
"As soon as they were identified, we advised them to self-isolate in order to keep patient contact to a minimum. We are now working urgently to identify all patients and other health care workers who may have come into close contact, and at this stage we believe this to be a relatively small number."
Public Health England Medical Director Yvonne Doyle


Well, surprise; such disease outbreaks usually start with a 'small number' and transmission usually takes over from there, when unknown to the carriers who are initially symptom-free they begin to contaminate all others around them, and then those they contaminated then are exposed to others and the numbers of those affected begin to rise exponentially. This, in a nutshell, is how pandemics arise, and this is precisely the spark that becomes a bigger fire that WHO's chief alluded to.

According to the venerable BBC, a doctor's practise in the English city of Brighton is now closed temporarily after a staff member of the clinic had tested positive for coronavirus. There it is; visit a clinic, a hospital where germs reign supreme and become infected. The barn door is always slammed shut once its residents have left the scene. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Britain is now eight, a modest, almost negligible number to be concerned about.

In fact, roughly the same number that appeared in a hospital in Wuhan, China, back in mid-December with mysterious flu-like pneumonia symptoms. And the rest is very recent history  That insignificant number has inspired the British government to declare the virus a serious and imminent health threat to the nation. That being so, it granted itself additional authority to isolate any citizens suspected of having been infected to prevent further spread ...

People wear protective masks as they ride on a nearly empty subway car during the evening rush period on Feb. 10, 2020 in Beijing, China. The number of cases of a deadly new coronavirus rose to more than 40000 in mainland China Monday, days after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a global public health emergency. China continued to lock down the city of Wuhan in an effort to contain the spread of the pneumonia-like disease which medicals experts have confirmed can be passed from human to human. In an unprecedented move, Chinese authorities have put travel restrictions on the city which is the epicenter of the virus and municipalities in other parts of the country affecting tens of millions of people. The number of those who have died from the virus in China climbed to over 900 on Monday, mostly in Hubei province, and cases have been reported in other countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, India, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and several others. The World Health Organization has warned all governments to be on alert and screening has been stepped up at airports around the world. Some countries, including the United States, have put restrictions on Chinese travelers entering and advised their citizens against travel to China.
People wear protective masks as they ride on a nearly empty subway car during the evening rush period on Feb. 10, 2020 in Beijing, China.  Photo: Kevin Freyer/Getty

All such new British cases were known contacts of a British patient in France, identified by public health officials tracing possible cases. The Diamond Princess cruise ship with its 3,700 passengers and crew remain quarantined in the Japanese port of Yokohama, aboard ship. Another 65 cases have been detected, giving the ship 135 confirmed cases of coronavirus ... and growing.

Latest figures give a total of 40,000 confirmed cases in China, along with 909 deaths related to the coronavirus. Another 319 cases have been confirmed in 24 countries where one death has occurred outside China. Sunday's death toll from the epidemic had leaped by 97, making it the deadliest day yet in the epidemic.



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posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, February 12, 2020

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