Coronavirus: "There is no point in falling into psychosis"

Text by: RFI Follow

Three questions for Professor Yazdan Yazdanpanah, head of the infectious diseases department at Bichat hospital in Paris. By Camille Kauffmann.

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The coronavirus epidemic is spreading, confirming concern the World Health Organization. In Europe, Italy has just announced a third death, after having stopped the Carnival of Venice and imposed quarantine in eleven cities in the north of the country. In the Middle East, several neighbors of Iran have announced the closure of their borders with the Islamic Republic to prevent the spread of the epidemic. And in Asia, South Korea has declared the state of maximum alert.

French Minister of Health Olivier Véran said this Sunday that the epidemic situation has not changed in France, where only one person remains hospitalized. Some 70 additional hospitals will nevertheless be "activated" to cope with the possible spread of the virus. Interview with Yazdan Yazdanpanah, head of the infectious diseases department at Bichat hospital in Paris, director of the institute of infectiology at Inserm and expert with the WHO

RFI : The balance sheet is increasing in Italy : eleven cities are quarantined, the Venice Carnival was prematurely stopped. Should we worry about it in France ?

Prof. Yazdan Yazdanpanah : Indeed, the cases in Italy were identified late, but I think that Italy has all the means in hand to put an end to transmission. France too. Since the beginning of the epidemic, we have managed to avoid important chains of transmission, because we detected these cases quickly. But France depends on other countries and that is why we must be attentive to the countries of Southeast Asia in particular. There is no point in falling into psychosis, you have to watch and keep doing what you know how to do.

How do you interpret the words of the president of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, according to which the “ shooting window ” to stop the epidemic of coronavirus is narrowing ?

Until now, the epidemic was rather in China. Now there are chains of transmission of the virus in other countries. For the moment, these chains are not yet important, but the more they increase, the more difficult it will be to intervene. What the President of WHO meant was that it may not be too late. On the other hand, it is really necessary to act in each country where there are chains of transmission by detecting the people affected very quickly, by isolating them, and by looking for the individuals with whom they have been in contact.

Is it problematic that some people infected with coronavirus do not show symptoms ?

Yes, it seems that there are cases of asymptomatic people and we do not know if these people in turn transmit the virus. It's a possibility, although I think they have a low impact on transmission. In any case, it is extremely difficult to identify them. Let's start with the easiest way to move forward, which is to identify people who have symptoms.

► Read also - Coronavirus: Italy, South Korea and Iran are trying to stem the epidemic

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