Corona Virus

[Tommy T.]

4 minutes ago, hk blues said:

Hey Tom,  just because you guys over the pond are crazy, don't tar us all with the same brush!  

Okay, HK... so just the Yanks and Chinese are crazy? I think about the Filipino drivers here too... Please accept my modification of comment!

[JamesD]

Thanks God that those people are being determined and wont spread here in our country.

[bastonjock]

I just saw a bbc news flash that a second chinese city has been locked down

[hk blues]

2 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

Okay, HK... so just the Yanks and Chinese are crazy? I think about the Filipino drivers here too... Please accept my modification of comment!

Nah Tom, not just the Yanks and the Chinese...Canadians are a bit iffy as well IMHO!

[canadamale]

3 hours ago, hk blues said:

Nah Tom, not just the Yanks and the Chinese...Canadians are a bit iffy as well IMHO!

Hey now I resemble that remark

[canadamale]

5 hours ago, bastonjock said:

I just saw a bbc news flash that a second chinese city has been locked down

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/coronavirus-panic-spreads-in-china-with-three-cities-in-lockdown/ar-BBZfHo1?ocid=spartandhp , up to three cities and 20 million peoples.

[Kuya John]

19 hours ago, bastonjock said:

I suspect that I might have some sort of restriction in place as I work for the National Health Service , a lot of the buildings that I have to visit have elderly patients 

Likewise my wife also an  NHS worker will be travelling back to UK from Manila via Hong Kong, Saturday too, it might be advisable for her to check out a return to work under the circumstances

I have not found any advice on Cathy Pacific website regarding this outbreak.

Edited January 23, 2020 by Kuya John

[Mike J]

Scary stuff.  This article says it could end up being another Spanish Flu epidemic.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/chinas-coronavirus-has-the-same-death-rate-as-the-spanish-flu-pandemic-that-killed-50-m-people-151608803.html

China’s deadly coronavirus may have the same death rate as Spanish flu, an expert has warned.

Deaths from the new virus rose to 17 on Wednesday with hundreds of cases now confirmed, increasing fears of widespread contagion.

The previously unknown flu-like coronavirus strain is believed to have emerged from an animal market in central Wuhan city, with cases now detected as far away as the US.

The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 is widely regarded as “the deadliest in history”, and is believed to have infected around 500 million people worldwide, killing between 20 and 50 million.

Chinese officials have confirmed 440 cases of the new coronavirus strain - 2019-nCoV - so far, with 17 deaths.

Based on existing data, the disease is said to have a 2% death rate. This means that for every 50 people who catch the infection, one will statistically die.

To put this into context, around one in every 1,000 who develop flu die, giving it a death rate of 0.1%.

“This [2019-nCoV’s death rate] could be 2%, similar to Spanish flu,” said Professor Neil Ferguson from Imperial College London.

Professor Peter Horby from the University of Oxford pointed out that fatality estimations are based on “clinical data around hospital cases”.

Of those in hospital, “15%-to-20% are severe cases”, defined as needing ventilation.

Coronaviruses as a class are common, causing everything from the common cold to epidemics like severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars).

2019-nCoV is thought to have originated in animals before “jumping” over to humans.

“Novel viruses spread much faster because we have no immunity,” Prof Ferguson said.

Fatalities are occurring as a result of pneumonia, which comes about when a respiratory infection causes the alveoli (air sacs) in the lungs to become inflamed and filled with fluid or pus, according to the American Lung Association.

The lungs then struggle to draw in air, resulting in reduced oxygen in the bloodstream.

“Without treatment the end is inevitable,” said the charity Médecins Sans Frontières.

“Deaths occurs because of asphyxiation.”

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned there is no specific treatment for coronaviruses

If the infection triggers pneumonia, doctors work to combat the complication.

When a virus is to blame – like 2019-nCoV – pneumonia may be treated via “antiviral medication”, according to the American Lung Association.

Yet, Prof Horby argued there is “no effective anti-viral”.

“Most pneumonia is bacterial,” he said.

These infections tend to respond to antibiotics.

“With viral pneumonia, care is ‘supportive’,” Prof Horby said.

2019-nCoV is not the first coronavirus that has got people panicked.

Sars made headlines in the early 2000s after 774 people died across dozens of countries, mainly in Asia.

Genetic analyses reveal 2019-nCoV is more closely related to Sars than any other coronavirus.

“Sars was nearly universally severe,” Prof Ferguson said.

“Most cases in China are described as ‘mild’.

“We’re not sure what that means.”

What is the coronavirus 2019-nCoV?
The city of Wuhan is at the centre of the outbreak, which likely originated from infected animals at a market.

Most of those who initially fell ill worked at, or visited, the market.

China's National Health Commission confirmed the virus can spread person-to-person, with patients in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

Cases have also arisen in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and the US.

Prof Ferguson claims Wuhan likely has around 4,000 cases, Yahoo UK reported.

Like other strains of coronavirus, 2019-nCoV typically starts with flu-like symptoms, including fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.

Six coronaviruses are known to infect people, with this strain being the “seventh”.

The pathogens trigger mild-to-moderate upper respiratory tract infections, like the common cold, according to the CDC.

In rarer cases, coronaviruses can lead to lower-respiratory tract infections, such as pneumonia or bronchitis.

These tend to occur in babies, the elderly or those with weak immune systems.

Coronaviruses commonly spread via coughing, sneezing, shaking hands or touching a contaminated object.

The virus enters the body if contaminated hands touch the eyes, nose or mouth.

In rare cases, faecal contamination is to blame.

US health officials are working on a vaccine against 2019-nCoV; however, it will likely be months before the first stage of trials are underway and more than a year before one is available to the public, CNN reported.

For now, the World Health Organization advises people avoid “unprotected” contact with live animals, thoroughly cook meat and eggs, and stay away from those with flu-like symptoms.

*The death toll was accurate at the time of publication.

[bastonjock]

2 hours ago, Kuya John said:

Likewise my wife also an  NHS worker will be travelling back to UK from Manila via Hong Kong, Saturday too, it might be advisable for her to check out a return to work under the circumstances

I have not found any advice on Cathy Pacific website regarding this outbreak.

There are now 3 suspected cases in the UK

[Tommy T.]

Here's another update about what I now call the Wuhan Flu:

(Bloomberg) -- China is rushing to halt the spread of a new coronavirus as the death toll rose to 25, even as the World Health Organization stopped short of calling the SARS-like disease a global health emergency.

Restrictions on travel and public gatherings have been implemented in Wuhan, the city in central China where the virus was first detected, as well as in several nearby municipalities. Hong Kong and Beijing are canceling planned holiday activities, according to local officials and state media.

Pressure to contain the virus is growing as the number of cases expand. Adding to the urgency to curtail the spread is the start of Lunar New Year on Friday, when millions of Chinese travel across the country and abroad. Chinese stores were stripped of masks and hand sanitizers as fearful customers sought protection.

“The next few weeks will be very important not just for containing the outbreak but also to help us understand how this virus behaves,” Sanjaya Senanayake, associate professor of medicine at the Australian National University, told Bloomberg Television. “It’s really important for countries around the world to make sure they’re prepared for this.”

Concerns about the virus extend beyond health to its impact on the economy, with warnings that China’s fragile stabilization could be at risk. Mounting fears about the outbreak have roiled financial markets, and the Shanghai Composite Index had the worst end to a Lunar Year in its three-decade history.

Public health experts gathered by the United Nations agency to review the situation were split over whether they should recommend declaring a public health crisis of international concern and instead opted to continue monitoring the outbreak. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director-general, said he would reconvene the committee within 10 days, or at a moment’s notice should the situation take a turn for the worse.

“Make no mistake, this is an emergency in China, but it has not yet become a global health emergency,” Tedros said at a briefing in Geneva Thursday. “It may yet become one.”

The number of confirmed cases in mainland China rose to 830 as of Jan. 23, including 177 cases in severe condition and the 25 deaths, the National Health Commission said in a statement. One of the deaths was from the northern province of Hebei, while the rest were in Hubei province, where Wuhan is located. The 80-year-old man had recently traveled to Wuhan.

Patients with the infection have been found in countries across Asia, with Singapore and Vietnam announcing cases while Japan and South Korea reported second patients. While most cases have remained mild, about one-fourth of those infected have developed severe disease, officials said.

Most of those who have died had other health conditions, including diabetes and heart disease, that weakened their immune systems. Symptoms include fever, cough or chest tightness, and difficulty breathing.

While the virus is moving from human to human, a situation that worries public health officials, it appears that close exposure is critical. Most cases have moved from patients to their close family members or to health-care workers who were caring for them.

The WHO said in a statement after its briefing that “amplification” -- presumably a super spreader event in which an infected person passes on the disease to many others -- occurred at one health facility. It also said a single patient on average can ignite as many as 2.5 additional infections. Furthermore, it has detected transmission from patient to patient across a chain of as many as four people in Wuhan.

The virus is believed to have emerged last month in a seafood and wildlife market in Wuhan, spreading from infected animals to humans.

It’s critical for public health officials to monitor the situation closely, said Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, a London-based medical research philanthropy. It’s still not clear how the virus moves from person-to-person, when patients are infectious or how best to treat them, he said.

“This outbreak and the speed with which this new virus has spread in China and traveled across borders, is a reminder of how vulnerable we are globally to outbreaks of infectious diseases known and unknown,” Farrar said in a statement. “Travel restrictions may be important in buying time, to signal the seriousness of the situation and may help reduce the impact, but are unlikely to stop this epidemic.”

Seven cities including Wuhan in Hubei province have restricted the use of public transportation to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, according to announcements from those cities. The other cities include Huanggang, Xianning, Qianjing, Xiantao, Ezhou and Chibi.

An emergency declaration by the WHO would have allowed the agency to begin coordinating government responses. It also could have recommended travel and trade restrictions to stop the spread of the infection.

The WHO has come under fire in the past for raising the alert too soon as well as too late. The last respiratory illness to trigger a public health emergency was the flu pandemic of 2009, which caused widespread alarm but ended up being relatively mild.

In 2014, by contrast, the WHO was criticized for not sounding the alarm early enough as Ebola raged through West Africa. Another outbreak of that illness last July in the Democratic Republic of Congo was also deemed to be a public health emergency, almost a year after the contagion first erupted.

Under the shadow of its mishandling of the SARS pandemic 17 years ago, China wants to show the world it’s dealing with the crisis transparently and effectively, while still struggling to understand a pathogen that is difficult to detect.

Both the Wuhan virus, known as 2019-nCoV, and SARS belong to the family of coronaviruses, so called because of their crown-like shape.