In several interviews with Chinese media while he was hospitalized, Dr. Li described how he was infected by a female patient who saw him for glaucoma in the second week of January. She had developed a fever and a CT scan showed an unknown virus in her lung. Two of her family members were also sick.
“It was such an obvious case of human-to-human transmission,” Dr. Li said, adding that he reported it to hospital officials right away.
A few days later, Dr. Li started coughing and his temperature rose. He booked a room in a hotel, worried that his child and his pregnant wife would be infected. A CT scan confirmed his fear; he was infected and was hospitalized on Jan. 12, he wrote in a Weibo post last week. He wasn’t counted as a confirmed case until Feb. 1, he wrote, nearly three weeks after he first showed symptoms.
The hospital put him under quarantine. Around the same time, he learned that his parents and some colleagues were infected as well.
“I was thinking then why the official announcement was still saying there had been no transmission between humans and of medical staff,” he wrote in his Weibo post."
Chinese Doctor Who Issued Early Warning on Virus Dies
Reminds me of the 3 doctors treating in West Africa and the nurse from Texas that all got Ebola while treating patients. (all flown to and treated in Georgia successfully) CDC and WHO have said that priority for masks etc is for health care workers to be protected.
So sad when the health care workers get ill from helping others, in addition if they have they can certainly pass the infection on to their patients, their coworkers, their parents, their spouses and babies. I do hope his wife and baby will remain virus free.