New SARS type virus spreading in China

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The mysterious coronavirus that has killed at least three people and sickened more than 200 in China is now capable of spreading from person to person, a prominent Chinese scientist said on Monday, adding to fears of a broader pandemic. The disclosure increased pressure on the Chinese government to contain a growing public health crisis, just as China enters its busiest travel season of the year.

The authorities had previously said the deadly virus seemed capable of spreading only from animals to humans in most cases, tracing the outbreak to a market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. But in recent days at least two people have become infected with the pneumonialike virus even though they live hundreds of miles from Wuhan, experts said on Monday, suggesting that the illness is spreading from person to person.

“Now we can say it is certain that it is a human-to-human transmission phenomenon,” Zhong Nanshan, a scientist who is leading a government-appointed expert panel on the outbreak, said in an interview on state-run television on Monday.

The World Health Organization announced Monday that it was convening an emergency meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 22, “to ascertain whether the outbreak constitutes a public health emergency of international concern, and what recommendations should be made to manage it.” Millions of Chinese are traveling this week for the Lunar New Year holiday, adding to fears that the virus could spread swiftly and on a broader scale. Experts said the severity of the outbreak would now depend on how many people, on average, a person with virus could infect.

“There are now sufficient cases that it’s not going to die out by chance,” said Neil Ferguson, a public health expert at Imperial College London who has studied the new virus. “The real question now is, how efficiently can this virus spread from person to person?”
Also on Monday, the authorities reported that new cases had been detected for the first time in Beijing, in Shanghai and the southern city of Shenzhen, all hundreds of miles from Wuhan. Cases have also been reported in Japan, South Korea and Thailand.
Many of the cases were connected to the Huanan Seafood Market, which also sold live poultry and exotic animal meats. Considered a likely source of the virus, the market was closed and disinfected.

The health commission in Wuhan said on Sunday that the illness had also appeared in people who had not been exposed to the market, raising the possibility that the virus could be present elsewhere in the city.

Local officials have pledged to handle the outbreak with transparency. But the memory of how China initially covered up the extent of a deadly SARS outbreak that infected more than 8,000 people in 2002 and 2003 has not completely faded. Although flu experts have said the Chinese government is trying to be more transparent now, many in China remain skeptical. Over the weekend, the number of reported cases more than tripled to about 200, mostly in Wuhan. One more person in the city died, bringing the total death toll to three, while nine others remained critically ill, the city’s health commission said. Twenty-five people have recovered.

On Monday, five new cases were reported in Beijing, 14 in Guangdong Province, and one in Shanghai — the first cases reported in China outside Wuhan. The total number of cases climbed to at least 218, state media reported on Monday. The World Health Organization said the spike in reported cases was the result of increased searching and testing for respiratory illnesses.
Experts initially said that it did not appear to be readily spread by humans, but on Monday Mr. Zhong said that in Guangdong, a southern province, two individuals appeared to have been infected by relatives who had traveled to Wuhan. Mr. Zhong said the virus could be present in particles of saliva. He added that in one case, a patient appeared to have infected 14 medical workers.

Coronaviruses are named for the spikes that protrude from their membranes, like the sun’s corona. Such viruses cause several illnesses of the respiratory tract, ranging from the common cold to severe diseases like SARS. According to the World Health Organization, common signs of infection include fever, cough, and respiratory difficulties like shortness of breath. Serious cases can lead to pneumonia, kidney failure and even death.
To prevent the spread of respiratory infections, the W.H.O. recommends that people wash their hands regularly, cover their mouths and noses when coughing and sneezing, and avoid direct contact with farm or wild animals.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/20/worl ... ptoms.html

There is a fear that China is lying about the number of cases.


SARS - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory illness caused by a coronavirus called SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV). SARS was first reported in Asia in February 2003. The illness spread to more than two dozen countries in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia before the SARS global outbreak of 2003 was contained.

Since 2004, there have not been any known cases of SARS reported anywhere in the world.
https://www.cdc.gov/sars/index.htmlhttps://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/about/prevention.html

Just an alert, no cases reported in the US. There are no vaccines for coronaviruses.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/21/health/w ... index.html
The United States has its first confirmed case of a new virus that appeared in Wuhan, China, last month, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday. The coronavirus has already sickened hundreds and killed six people in Asia.

CDC officials said the United States will be more strict about health screenings of airplane passengers arriving from Wuhan.
The patient, who is not being named, is in isolation at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Washington. He is in his 30s and lives in Snohomish County, Washington, just north of Seattle.
Emphasis mine.

The amino acid L-lysine indirectly limits or stops viral replication. It might be good to have a couple bottles of 1000 mg tablets on hand. It's good for cold and flu as well and there are no side effects.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/640102
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/ly ... s#section2

ETA...and the DOW tumbles.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/21/investin ... index.html
The Dow and broader stock market closed in the red Tuesday as reports of the first case of the Wuhan coronavirus in the United States weighed on the market.

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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It’s now on our shore.
US confirms first case of China virus on American soil
By Agence France-PresseJanuary 21, 2020

US health authorities on Tuesday announced the first case of a person on American soil sickened by a new virus that emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, and intensified airport health screenings.

The man, a US resident in his 30s who lives near Seattle, is in good condition, according to federal and state officials.

The man is being “hospitalized out of an abundance of precaution, and for short term monitoring, not because there was severe illness,” said Chris Spitters, a Washington state health official.

The news came as Asian countries ramped up measures to block the spread of the new virus as the death toll in China rose to six and the number of cases surpassed 300.

China is about to embark on the Lunar New Year holiday — a huge travel time for hundreds of millions of people.

The man hospitalized in Washington state had traveled to the US from Wuhan, but did not visit the seafood market thought to be at the heart of the outbreak.

He entered the US on January 15 — two days before health screenings for those traveling from Wuhan began at airports in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco — and approached health authorities himself after reading news reports about the virus.

Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will now be deployed to two additional international airports, in Chicago and Atlanta.

All travelers on flights from Wuhan, either direct or connecting, will now be re-routed to the five airports with screening systems in place.

Nations across the Asia-Pacific region stepped up checks of passengers at airports to detect the SARS-like coronavirus.

Fears of a bigger outbreak rose after a prominent expert from China’s National Health Commission confirmed late Monday that the virus can be passed between people.
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/01/us-co ... ican-soil/
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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Man, my wife, mother in law and I all had SARS. It sucked. I did think holy shit, this could actually get bad enough to kill me. It was rough, just coughing so much you couldn’t breathe or rest, and had a super high fever. My wife and I just lay in bed shivered and coughed and were delirious together for three days.

I wonder if we have any kind of immunity?
'Sorry stupid people but there are some definite disadvantages to being stupid."

-John Cleese

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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The annual influenza viruses start in Asia, they are avian, equine or swine viruses that jump to humans. Looks like this coronavirus also jumped from animals to humans and we know it can pass person to person.
He added that in one case, a patient appeared to have infected 14 medical workers.
That's concerning since medical workers take precautions.

This coronavirus appears closely related to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). Later investigation found that SARS originated in bats in China that infected other animals. One epidemiologist I heard said bats are great incubators for different viruses, the viruses don't kill the bat and the bat passes them along. He thought this could also have a bat origin.
-SARS was caused by a new coronavirus that had never been found in people before.
-In 2003, a total of 8,096 people in 29 countries got SARS and 774 of them died.
-Only eight people in the United States got SARS. None of them died.
-Health professionals around the world worked together to successfully contain the outbreak in 2003.
-In six months, the global SARS outbreak cost the world an estimated $40 billion.
https://www.cdc.gov/dotw/sars/
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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The coronavirus is claiming more lives in China – with nine people now dead and 440 infected. Meanwhile, the first U.S. case was found in Seattle. In Chicago, O’Hare International Airport has joined four other U.S. airports that are screening travelers arriving from China. The goal is to stop a possible outbreak in Chicago. The enhanced medical screening will take place at O’Hare starting this week, with the Chinese New Year just days away and travel to and from China expected to increase.

Federal health inspectors will be stationed at the International Terminal as travelers come in from Wuhan, China – where it is believed the this strain of coronavirus originated. Travelers coming into the United States will be funneled into the five airports. In addition to O’Hare are airports in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Atlanta.
https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2020/01/21 ... ronavirus/
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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My wife taught microbiology for 20 years before becoming dean. She taught how easy, with today’s rapid travel, it is to spread a disease and have a pandemic. It is made worse by those refusing to get vaccinated for diseases.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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Mason wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2020 5:48 pm Man, my wife, mother in law and I all had SARS. It sucked. I did think holy shit, this could actually get bad enough to kill me. It was rough, just coughing so much you couldn’t breathe or rest, and had a super high fever. My wife and I just lay in bed shivered and coughed and were delirious together for three days.

I wonder if we have any kind of immunity?
You and your wife were younger and probably had good health on your side. How did your mother in law do?

This new Wuhan coronavirus is a cousin of SARS.
Humans have no pre-existing immunity to SARS-CoV or MERS-CoV [MERS-Middle East Respiratory Syndrome]. These novel viruses have the ability to evade innate host defenses (e.g. type I interferon responses and related mechanisms), and replicate efficiently in host tissues (respiratory and intestinal tract cells; kidney cells also for MERS-CoV).
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/im ... oronavirus
MERS, SARS and the Wuhan coronavirus appear to cause more severe disease in older people, though uncertainty remains around the latest outbreak. Of the cases of Wuhan coronavirus reported so far, none are yet confirmed to be among children, Horby said. The average age is people 40 or over, he said.
The Wuhan coronavirus fatality rate is lower than for SARS and MERS, but still comparable to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, explains Neil Ferguson, professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London. "It is a significant concern, globally," Ferguson says, noting that we don't fully understand the severity.
Good question about immunity. It's related to but different than SARS so I wouldn't think so but best to ask the experts.

"Ask CDC" - call or e-mail.
https://www.cdc.gov/cdc-info/ask-cdc.html
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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No likely immunity from having suffered through SARS unfortunately. Most common flu viruses are closely related to each other and yet every year we have to get new flu shots or get sick all over again.

Yes, I am the resident Chinese expert on inter species viral transmission here on the LGC.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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Bisbee wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 5:49 pm Is it time now to off the bats??? Just sayin’...
That would be a big job, worse than offing all the wild boars.
The remarkable mammals known as “bats” and “flying foxes”... may be the most abundant, diverse, and geographically dispersed vertebrates.
Bats also are being increasingly recognized as reservoir hosts for viruses which can cross species barriers (i.e., “spill over”) to infect humans and other domestic and wild mammals.
The extreme longevity of bats, together with the possibility that they might develop persistent infections with certain viruses, may help maintain the viruses and transmit them to other vertebrates. Many species of small temperate bats of the suborder Microchiroptera have life spans that exceed 25 years, with the greatest longevity, of 35 years, documented for a little brown bat. (On average, little brown bats weigh about 7 g.) This extreme longevity in a small mammal places bats well outside the traditional regression line for mammals that relates the life expectancy to the ratio of metabolic rate to body weight
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1539106/

Hot spot areas of bat disease in the world.

Image




https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandso ... -fear-bats
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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Bisbee wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 6:09 pm No likely immunity from having suffered through SARS unfortunately. Most common flu viruses are closely related to each other and yet every year we have to get new flu shots or get sick all over again.

Yes, I am the resident Chinese expert on inter species viral transmission here on the LGC.
Excellent.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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China is taking extreme measures, keep in mind that Wuhan has about the same population as London, England.
Chinese officials said that from Thursday, all flights and passenger train services out of Wuhan would be stopped. Bus, subway and ferry services would also shut down from 1000 local time.
Those living in Wuhan had already been told to avoid crowds and minimise public gatherings.
There are more than 500 confirmed cases and 17 people have died.
Although only about 500 cases have been confirmed, calculations by scientists at the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College London suggest there are 4,000 people sick with the virus in Wuhan.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51215348
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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highdesert wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 6:56 pm China is taking extreme measures, keep in mind that Wuhan has about the same population as London, England. Chinese officials said that from Thursday, all flights and passenger train services out of Wuhan would be stopped. Bus, subway and ferry services would also shut down from 1000 local time.
Just like European cities and villages being blockaded, nobody allowed to leave, during the Black Death.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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featureless wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 6:41 pm
Bisbee wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 6:09 pm Yes, I am the resident Chinese expert on inter species viral transmission here on the LGC.
Kinky. :blink:
You betcha!
TrueTexan wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 7:22 pm
highdesert wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 6:56 pm China is taking extreme measures, keep in mind that Wuhan has about the same population as London, England. Chinese officials said that from Thursday, all flights and passenger train services out of Wuhan would be stopped. Bus, subway and ferry services would also shut down from 1000 local time.
Just like European cities and villages being blockaded, nobody allowed to leave, during the Black Death.
Yup, that’s gonna work.
:yawn:
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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TrueTexan wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 7:22 pm
highdesert wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2020 6:56 pm China is taking extreme measures, keep in mind that Wuhan has about the same population as London, England. Chinese officials said that from Thursday, all flights and passenger train services out of Wuhan would be stopped. Bus, subway and ferry services would also shut down from 1000 local time.
Just like European cities and villages being blockaded, nobody allowed to leave, during the Black Death.
Yes but on a huge scale - size wise it's like closing off New York City.
The scale and complexity of Wuhan’s quarantine is probably unprecedented, said Howard Markel, a professor of history and medicine at the University of Michigan. “This is just mind-boggling,” he said. “I’ve never read about or seen a bigger one than they’re proposing.”
The government also will have to arrange for special transit to bring in food, water and medicine, while hospitals will need to prepare their doctors and nurses to provide in-home care. Morale will also be key, Markel said. If officials are smart, he said, they will ensure residents have ready access to video streaming and other online entertainment. Markel said the quarantine signals how seriously China is taking the outbreak: “It’s a bazooka, not a BB gun.”

Pressure from the international business community, which has a huge economic stake in China, is probably partly responsible for the country’s sweeping response, Markel said. Another factor is history. During the deadly outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in the early 2000s, the Chinese government took months to publicize its earliest cases. This time, Markel said, officials want to send a different message. Now, as then, battling the outbreak is going to be costly. SARS cost about $40 billion, Markel estimated. Depending on how far it spreads, he said, coronavirus could cost more.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/20 ... -outbreak/
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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Leave it to China to do it big.

But the humanitarian crisis is about to hit here. These millions of people still have to eat after all. Seeing supermarkets filled with people stocking up and getting ready for Armageddon...
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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The quarantine is also spreading, with nearby Huanggang and Ezhou announcing they were shutting down travel networks, effectively confining some 20 million people to their municipalities.
Local education officials, wearing masks, announced on TV that the start of the spring semester at all Hubei province schools would be delayed because of the outbreak.

“A bigger outbreak is certain,” said Guan Yi, a virologist who helped identify severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003. He estimated — “conservatively,” he said — that this outbreak could be 10 times bigger than the SARS epidemic because that virus was transmitted by only a few “super spreaders” in a more defined part of the country. “We have passed through the ‘golden period’ for prevention and control,” he told Caixin magazine from self-imposed quarantine after visiting Wuhan. “What’s more, we’ve got the holiday traffic rush and a dereliction of duty from certain officials.”
The ruling Communist Party, which initially tried to show transparency after being criticized for covering up the SARS virus outbreak 17 years ago, has now shown signs of reverting to its default position of censoring bad news.

The Wuhan Health Commission admitted Thursday evening that it was struggling under the strain of the outbreak. “At present, there is an obvious increase in the number of patients with fever in the city, and it is true that there are long queues and a shortage of beds in fever clinics,” the commission said in a post that was online for less than an hour.

A post from Wuhan Railway saying that 300,000 people traveled by train out of Wuhan on Wednesday, headed to every corner of the country, was also quickly deleted.
Analysts said the heavy-handed reaction underscored the political risks for Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the ruling Communist Party, already under pressure amid an economic slowdown and accused of mishandling an outbreak of swine flu last year, which led to a sharp spike in prices for China’s beloved pork.

“This outbreak may be the biggest threat to Xi and the Party in years, which is why they will stop at nothing to try to control and then eradicate it,” said Bill Bishop, publisher of the influential Sinocism newsletter.
Many people flocked to the roads to try to avoid getting caught in the quarantine. Television footage showed health workers in hazmat suits taking motorists’ temperatures as they waited at toll booths.

Others did not make it out. Hubei’s highway management authority closed multiple expressways in and around Wuhan, at least for some periods.
Although local authorities said they had enough food for residents and medical supplies to treat patients, Wuhan residents posted photos on social media showing empty shelves in grocery stores. Prices have spiked, with cabbages selling for double the usual amount.

Wuhan authorities have ordered residents to wear masks in public places, but the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, posted on social media that the province was short of masks and protective clothing. The post, which was widely shared, was soon deleted.

Speculation swirled that the government had silenced Zhong Nanshan, the renowned respiratory expert who helped discover SARS in 2003 and is known for his bluntness. Zhong, a member of the National Health Commission’s group of experts investigating the outbreak, had been on Chinese television constantly this week and announced the finding that the coronavirus could pass from human to human. But he has disappeared from screens in recent days.
There were also widespread reports on social media of hospitals in Wuhan turning away patients, reports that were indirectly confirmed when the Wuhan Health Commission sent out a notice saying the 61 outpatient fever treatment clinics “should not be closed for any reason.”
As the uncertainty continued, Guan, the virologist who identified SARS, offered a chilling perspective on the outbreak.

“I’ve seen it all: bird flu, SARS, influenza A, swine fever and the rest. But the Wuhan pneumonia makes me feel extremely powerless,” he told Caixin. “Most of the past epidemics were controllable, but this time, I’m petrified.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/co ... story.html
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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featureless wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 8:51 am Remember a few years back when Ebola landed here? At least this seems less lethal than that.
Yes, occurrences of Ebola happen along that mid portion of Africa, again bats and other bush animals eaten for food seem to be carriers and epidemics seem to burn themselves out. Ebola, Marburg, Lassa...cause viral hemorrhagic fevers basically patients bleed out. This new Wuhan virus is respiratory, and like most respiratory illnesses those over 65 or those with lung or immune system problems are most vulnerable.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China

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Call me paranoid, but every zombie/pandemic movie starts like this. Also, I do wonder if this is an excuse to crack down on Wuhan and surrounding cities. Or maybe it really is a pandemic. If I trusted the Xi government, I wouldn't be suspicious.

https://www.hrichina.org/sites/default/ ... nCourt.pdf
"In late 2002, a government probe into bribery at the Wuhan Intermediate People's Court in Hubei exposed the biggest judicial corruption scandal in recent years."
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

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