nNovel coronavirus ( 2019-nCoV) appears to cause similar symptoms to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and seems to be capable of spreading from person to person and between cities, according to the two papers published recently in the journal The Lancet. The studies offer some of the first rigorous analyses of patients who contracted nCoV that has broken out in China and spread to other countries.
SARS, was a viral respiratory disease caused by the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV). Between November 2002 and July 2003, the eight month outbreak in southern China infected a total of 8,098 people, resulting in 774 deaths in 17 countries. In comparison, the nCoV outbreak had infected 4,515 people, with 106 reported deaths. It means the virus has killed just over 2% of those that have been infected.
The scientists said that nCov can spread faster than the SARS-CoV.
“Taken together, evidence so far indicates human transmission for 2019-nCoV. We are concerned that 2019-nCoV could have acquired the ability for efficient human transmission.
“Airborne precautions, such as a fit-tested N95 respirator, and other personal protective equipment are strongly recommended. To prevent further spread of the disease in health-care settings that are caring for patients infected with 2019-nCoV, onset of fever and respiratory symptoms should be closely monitored among health-care workers,” said a battery of researchers.
The team included Prof C Huang, Prof L Zhang, T Yu, J Xia, Y Wei, Prof W Wu, Prof X Xie from Jin Yin-tan Hospital, Wuhan, China, Y Wang, G Fan, X Gu, H Li, Prof B Cao from Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Center of Respiratory Medicine, National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Diseases among others.
In the first new study, preliminary data from China’s Wuhan, the epicenter of the disease indicate some similar symptoms between the first 41 cases of the 2019 novel coronavirus and SARS. The second study, published at the same time, reports person-to-person transmission and inter-city spread of the new coronavirus in six members of the same family.
These early but important findings involve a small number of patients, and the authors stress the need to maximise the chances of containing 2019-nCoV infection through careful surveillance, active contact tracing, and vigorous searches for the animal hosts and transmission routes to humans.
The researchers analyzed that two-thirds of the infected persons had been to a large seafood market that also sold wild animals for meat and is thought to be where the virus jumped from an animal source to people. The median age of the patients was 49.
The researchers also reported that some of the fatal cases caused by the virus have been among people with underlying diseases like diabetes, liver disease, and hypertension, but the majority of the first 41 patients infected with the disease in Wuhan were healthy.
