Coronavirus Global Health Emergency, 2019-nCoV

[Amonet]

The number of people already infected by the mystery virus emerging in China is far greater than official figures suggest, scientists have told the BBC.

There have been 41 laboratory-confirmed cases of the new virus, but UK experts estimate the figure is closer to 1,700.

New Chinese virus 'will have infected hundreds'

Up to 4,500 patients in China may have caught the same strain of coronavirus that has killed two people, scientists fear.

Health officials in Wuhan – the city at the heart of the outbreak which started in December – confirmed four new cases today, taking the total to 48.

But Imperial College London researchers say this may be the 'tip of the iceberg' after analysing flights out of the city.

Experts say the fact three Chinese tourists have tested positive for the virus outside Wuhan indicates the disease toll may be higher than reported.

Scientists fear up to 4,500 Chinese patients may have caught the new coronavirus | Daily Mail Online

 

[Amonet]

The number of people confirmed infected by the new coronavirus has increased. One positive thing here seems to be that, though the virus has been found in people outside Wuhan, they've all traveled from Wuhan.

But, this article does admit now that there has been 'limited' person-to-person transmission. I'm personally suspicious that most people acquiring the virus are probably having a mild illness, more like a regular cold or flu, and that only the few who progress to full-blown pneumonia are being caught by testing. That would be a good and a bad thing. It would be good in that the death-rate would be lower, but bad in that it would make it easier to spread just as colds and flu spread across the globe.

Chinese authorities have reported 139 new cases of a mysterious virus in two days, marking the first time that the infection has been confirmed in the country outside of Wuhan city.

The new cases were identified in the cities of Wuhan, Beijing and Shenzhen.

The total number of confirmed cases now exceeds 200, and three have died from the respiratory illness.

China confirms 139 cases of new virus in two days

 

[JaneEyre]

I honestly didn’t know coronavirus was a thing for humans. I know about the strain that affects cats (85% have come into contact with it, I believe). I also didn’t know it could be dangerous.

 

[Amonet]

I honestly didn’t know coronavirus was a thing for humans. I know about the strain that affects cats (85% have come into contact with it, I believe). I also didn’t know it could be dangerous.

The common cold is caused by a few different viruses, mostly rhinoviruses, but one coronavirus does cause common colds.

SARS and MERS are coronaviruses that recently became well know when they emerged to start infecting humans from their formerly preferred host species (civet cats for SARS, and camels for MERS).

I believe I read that this new coronavirus is only the seventh known to infect humans, most remain restricted to animal reservoirs like bats and camels.

This new one is supposed to be genetically most-closely related to SARS. But I don't see anything in the current numbers to suggest that the fatality rate is even close to that of SARS.

I also don't think the papers are correct in saying that 1.4 billion Chinese people will be traveling abroad for Lunar New Year...that would leave China completely devoid of people for the duration of the holiday!

I think they're doing the right thing to be being cautious with it. It's possible that people in/around China have been exposed to this virus before and it's not the first time its leapt into humans, so they might have historical resistance to it over there, and maybe people outside China could be hit harder by it. But those numbers don't look as severe as SARS to me. And from the few stories of those who've died from pneumonia caused by this new coronavirus, they had severe pre-existing conditions that would have left them more susceptible to a severe case of pneumonia. That happens with any flu or pneumonia, but we live with those all the time.

I am very interested in the tracking and learning about a new disease like this, but I absolutely do not support any fear-mongering press about it. Remember with Ebola, it was devastating to some parts of the countries where the disease originated, but in countries like the US and UK, more people died in a single day from traffic accidents, heart disease, and cancers, than died in total outside Africa from Ebola. And the more severe this turns out to be, the harder various medical and governmental organizations will work to try and prevent its spread. If most cases are relatively mild, though, it's possible that it will spread across the world and there's nothing anyone can do about it, just like the common cold and regular flu.

 

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[JaneEyre]

Uh, oh. In Washington state.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/01/21/coronavirus-us-case/

 

[Amonet]

Thanks for posting that, JaneEyre....I don't look at a very wide range of publications to get much of a variation in sources for articles, and I don't really want this to just be links to BBC articles!

But here is another BBC article, saying that China's leadership is warning against a cover-up, and that transparency is necessary in order to catch cases and take the necessary precautions.

It says six people have now died from infection with the new coronavirus. Human-to-human transmission is confirmed in some cases, including two in Guangdong province in China. It also says fifteen medical workers in Wuhan have been infected...I would say whether that's from human-to-human transmission or touch transmission is kind of irrelevant? I hope everyone will recover.

A total of 291 cases have now been reported across major cities in China, including Beijing and Shanghai. However most patients are in Wuhan, the central city of 11 million at the heart of the outbreak.

My opinion remains that the confirmed cases are probably the tip of the iceberg, and there are probably hundreds to thousands of others who are self-treating at home and not suffering such severe symptoms that they get admitted to hospital and tested to see if they're infected with this new coronavirus or with something else.

Warning against cover-up as China virus cases jump

 

[dotr]

Jan 23 2020
Quebec health officials monitoring 5 people for possible cases of coronavirus
''MONTREAL -- Six people in Quebec who had recently travelled to China have displayed symptoms of a respiratory virus, a spokesperson for the provincial health ministry said on Wednesday.

It is not yet clear if they are suffering from another type of respiratory virus or Wuhan coronavirus, the spokesperson added. Five of them are being monitored in hospitals in Montreal and Quebec City as a precautionary measure. The ministry did not say which hospitals. A sixth has tested negative for the virus and has been discharged from the hospital.

The announcement came after the health ministry announced it was on watch for the virus and was taking pre-emptive measures to warn doctors, nurses and other health officials.''

 

[JaneEyre]

Bat soup is getting blamed. I can’t believe that’s a thing!

 

[dotr]

Bat soup is getting blamed. I can’t believe that’s a thing!

Would normally post a supportive photo, but ewwwww, peek if you can bear it!
Revolting footage shows Chinese woman eating a bat as scientists link coronavirus to the animal | Daily Mail Online

 

[AliceInPain]

So the virus comes from a dark, cold, damp place?
That's the living conditions for bats, right?
What were the chinese doing in this place, or let drip into it?
I've read horror stories of foods, clothes and kids toys from China you can't eat, wear or use due to poisons and chemicals.
Has that got anything to do with this?
I also don't see the difference between eating a bat to eating a prawn, crab, pig's butt, drinking a cow's inner liquid, or whatever. Why should eating a bat be ewww?
eta: I don't agree to eating household pets. That's a whole different matter.

 

[dotr]

So the virus comes from a dark, cold, damp place?
That's the living conditions for bats, right?
What were the chinese doing in this place, or let drip into it?
I've read horror stories of foods, clothes and kids toys from China you can't eat, wear or use due to poisons and chemicals.
Has that got anything to do with this?
I also don't see the difference between eating a bat to eating a prawn, crab, pig's butt, drinking a cow's inner liquid, or whatever. Why should eating a bat be ewww?

Actually was about to post a similar sentiment about my reaction to the bat soup pic, it does not appeal to me, but then i sometimes enjoy eating escargot and fried liver to the disgust of others, so fair enough, each to their own!

 

[Amonet]

So the virus comes from a dark, cold, damp place?
That's the living conditions for bats, right?
What were the chinese doing in this place, or let drip into it?
I've read horror stories of foods, clothes and kids toys from China you can't eat, wear or use due to poisons and chemicals.
Has that got anything to do with this?
I also don't see the difference between eating a bat to eating a prawn, crab, pig's butt, drinking a cow's inner liquid, or whatever. Why should eating a bat be ewww?
eta: I don't agree to eating household pets. That's a whole different matter.

BBM. No, this is a virus, nothing to do with chemicals or poisons.

Previously the source of the virus was thought to be the seafood market, where there would probably also be live animals in close proximity to a lot of people.

Some coronaviruses, but not all, are associated with the bat as their main host.

I would think that with bats to humans, that the bat droppings could be a potential source of transmission. But that would probably only affect the occasional individual who'd come into contact with the droppings...that alone wouldn't cause an epidemic, you'd need to have human-to-human transmission, or at least air or surface transmission between humans.

 

[AliceInPain]

Actually was about to post a similar sentiment about my reaction to the bat soup pic, it does not appeal to me, but then i sometimes enjoy eating escargot and fried liver to the disgust of others, so fair enough, each to their own!

Ooh snails in garlic sauce, and those inner organ bits fried in olive oil and herbs mmm...
Haha. I also put gelatine in anything labeled "vegetarian".

Humans are messing with nature too much, these things are bound to happen.
The bats didn't just evolve to become people-killers.
Something made them. jmo.
(actually, I would think it pretty cool if organisms, especially cows, turned their beings against us and started killing us. We've been doing it to them way too long.)

 

[Amonet]

Ooh snails in garlic sauce, and those inner organ bits fried in olive oil and herbs mmm...
Haha. I also put gelatine in anything labeled "vegetarian".

Humans are messing with nature too much, these things are bound to happen.
The bats didn't just evolve to become people-killers.
Something made them. jmo.
(actually, I would think it pretty cool if organisms, especially cows, turned their beings against us and started killing us. We've been doing it to them way too long.)

The bats haven't evolved to become people-killers. A virus that has lived in bats for thousands of years without being able to affect humans....it's that virus that would have evolved to be able to live and thrive in human bodies.

Hundreds of years ago there was a cow-borne disease that affected humans. It was called cow-pox and often affected milk maids. It was noticed that milk maids often didn't suffer so badly with another related disease called smallpox. So the first smallpox vaccinations were made from cowpox.

 

[Taskforce88]

The next global pandemic will likely emerge from China. The previous ones all have.

 

[sloane7777]

Ooh snails in garlic sauce, and those inner organ bits fried in olive oil and herbs mmm...
Haha. I also put gelatine in anything labeled "vegetarian".

Humans are messing with nature too much, these things are bound to happen.
The bats didn't just evolve to become people-killers.
Something made them. jmo.
(actually, I would think it pretty cool if organisms, especially cows, turned their beings against us and started killing us. We've been doing it to them way too long.)

Omg I love you !!! great post BBM

 

[JaneEyre]

Would normally post a supportive photo, but ewwwww, peek if you can bear it!
Revolting footage shows Chinese woman eating a bat as scientists link coronavirus to the animal | Daily Mail Online

I accidentally glimpsed a photo. Very nasty.

 

[Hatfield]

Thanks everyone for the extra information about the Coronavirus.

Its almost a miracle there has not been more "bugs" like this. We are lucky there has not been a recent mass wipeout of humans because of some new bug. Many years ago, the Black Plague and events like that show us that it could happen again if we dont stay vigilant.

Having strong medicines that can combat these bugs is important and so far we have been lucky not to experience a worldwide mass killing due to a bug/virus/bacteria or something like it.

The Ebola Virus is horrific and the Flesh Eating Disease (mersa) are the two that really bother me. For Ebola, I think the scientists and doctors have finally developed some medicines that can sometimes save people if given to them in time. I recall reading about the new medicines the last time there was the Ebola outbreak overseas I think in Africa.

Not sure if they have anything for Mersa yet. The only thing I really know about Mersa are the stories where people have to get limbs amputated to save themselves. Very horrific. And some people catch it while in hospital for other reasons. Scary and it makes me want to avoid hospitals. The next time I have to visit someone in a hospital, I think I will walk in with a Gas Mask, and a BioHazard suit.

 

[Hatfield]

Oh. I do have one question if anyone knows the answer. I often see on the news the people of China and maybe Japan wear the face masks and I always thought they wore those for pollution smog and things like that.

Is pollution and smog the reason they wear those masks or maybe they had heard of dangers about "bugs" and maybe wear the masks to prevent catching a bug from other people?