The mysterious epidemic is spreading and concern is growing. Chinese health officials reported on Monday (January 20th) the death of a third patient affected by the epidemic caused by a new coronary virus. It now affects several cities across the country and 139 additional cases of pneumonia were reported over the weekend.
According to authorities, the epidemic has so far been confined to Wuhan, a city center of some 11 million people where the virus, from the same family as SARS, appeared last month.
But for the first time, Chinese health officials reported on Monday new cases in other cities across the country: two in Beijing and another in Shenzhen, the southern metropolis, which faces Hong Kong. More than 200 people have now been infected across the country.
What these new cases have in common is that all the infected people had gone to Wuhan in recent weeks.
>> In China, a mysterious epidemic of pneumonia revives the specter of SARS
Patients hospitalized in the capital are in stable condition and are being treated for pneumonia, local health officials say. However, the virus is causing growing concern after the death this weekend of a third person since the start of the epidemic and a significant increase in the number of new cases in Wuhan (nearly 140, the total now reaching 198).
Despite everything, the city's health authorities want to be reassuring: according to them, the risk of transmission of the virus between humans is considered "low", even if it is "not excluded".
More than 650 deaths linked to Sras Chine in 2002-2003
The focus of the epidemic appears to be a wholesale market in seafood and fish in Wuhan, where several infected patients worked. It has since been closed and decontamination operations have taken place.
The epidemic comes as the Chinese New Year festivities approach, the busiest time of the year in transportation, during which hundreds of millions of people travel by bus, train and plane to visit their families. Despite the risk of spread, movement in China is not currently subject to any restrictions.
The offending strain is a new type of coronavirus, a family with a large number of viruses. They can cause mild illnesses in humans (like a cold) but also other more serious ones like SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome).
Highly contagious, this virus killed some 650 people in mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003. Symptoms of SARS resemble those of pneumonia, with high fever and various respiratory problems. During the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) strongly criticized China for delaying raising the alarm and trying to conceal the extent of the disease.
Concern abroad
The concern is now perceptible abroad, where prevention measures are multiplying, such as in the United States, Thailand or Hong Kong.
This weekend, scientists from a research center at Imperial College in London, which advises institutions like the World Health Organization (WHO), questioned official figures estimating that the number of contaminations was probably over a thousand as of January 12.
To reach this conclusion, the researchers used the number of cases detected so far outside China (two in Thailand and one in Japan) to deduce the number of people likely infected in Wuhan, based on the data. international flights from this city's airport.
With AFP and Reuters
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