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Hong Kong Broadens Screening For 2019-nCoV


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Govt widens net for possible Wuhan virus infections

 
2020-01-16 HKT 20:17
 
 
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  • Patients with respiratory symptoms now have to be reported to health authorities even if they hadn't been to Wuhan, or the seafood market there thought to be the epicentre of the outbreak. File photo: AFP
     
    Patients with respiratory symptoms now have to be reported to health authorities even if they hadn't been to Wuhan, or the seafood market there thought to be the epicentre of the outbreak. File photo: AFP
 
Hong Kong health authorities on Thursday widened the criteria for private doctors to report patients who may have been infected with a newly-identified virus from Wuhan, after Japan confirmed that a man was infected with the novel coronavirus following a trip to the central mainland city.

Japan's health ministry said the patient, in his thirties, did not go to a seafood market there thought to be the epicentre of the outbreak.

But the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) in Hong Kong said according to information from their Japanese counterparts, he had “contact with a pneumonia patient while he was in Wuhan.”

The patient was hospitalised on January 10, four days after his return to Japan, with a persistent fever.

Tests on the patient, who was released from hospital on Wednesday, confirmed he was infected with the new virus.

The CHP said in light of the new information, doctors will be asked notify health authorities of any patients who have fever and respiratory symptoms if they have been to any mainland hospital, or had close contact with anyone confirmed to be infected with the novel coronavirus

Previously, they only had to refer sick people who had been to Wuhan.

“Travellers who fulfilled the above reporting criteria will be immediately referred to public hospitals for isolation, treatment and follow-up”, a CHP spokesman said in a statement.

He added that “the CHP will issue letters to doctors and private hospitals to inform them of the revised reporting criteria. The CHP will continue to maintain its liaisons with the World Health Organization, the National Health Commission and relevant overseas health authorities, and closely monitor the situation for risk assessment. The reporting criteria will be adjusted in a timely manner according to the prevailing situation."

It is not yet clear whether the new virus can be transmitted between humans, but on Wednesday, mainland authorities said it was possible it had spread inside a family.

The infected Japanese man appears to be only the second time the novel coronavirus has been detected outside China, after the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed a case in Thailand.

She has also said she had not visited the Wuhan seafood market. And WHO doctor Maria Van Kerkhove on Tuesday said she "wouldn't be surprised if there was some limited human-to-human transmission, especially among families who have close contact with one another".

The outbreak has killed one person so far, with 41 patients reported in Wuhan. (RTHK, AFP)
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Last updated: 2020-01-16 HKT 21:36
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China reports second death from Wuhan coronavirus as Thailand confirms another case

  • Man in Wuhan, 69, dies two weeks after being admitted to hospital with the new strain
  • Thailand reports second infected patient as countries across Asia continue to find confirmed or suspected cases
Wuhan Medical Treatment Centre, where people with the virus have been treated. Photo: Simon SongWuhan Medical Treatment Centre, where people with the virus have been treated. Photo: Simon Song
Wuhan Medical Treatment Centre, where people with the virus have been treated. Photo: Simon Song
 
A second person has died after contracting the 
coronavirus
 found in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, while Thailand has confirmed a second case of the virus.  

A 69-year-old man died on Wednesday, Wuhan Health Commission said late on Thursday. He had shown symptoms on December 21 before being admitted to Wuhan Medical Treatment Centre – where all suspected cases of the viral pneumonia have been treated – on January 4 after his condition worsened, the commission’s statement said.

The man had a heart muscle infection and tuberculosis when he was admitted to hospital, it said.

It follows the 
death last week
 of a 61-year-old man, who had tested positive for the coronavirus and also had abdominal tumours and chronic liver disease.
Wuhan outbreak: Thailand confirms first case of virus outside China

The Wuhan health authority said that the city had reported no new cases as of Wednesday and that 12 of the 41 patients confirmed to have been infected had recovered and been discharged from hospital. Five were being treated as severe cases.

 
 

Of the 763 people identified as having had close contact with the 41 patients, 644 were no longer under medical observation, it said.

 

China’s second confirmed death from the coronavirus came as Thailand’s health ministry said it had detected a second case of the strain.

The Thai ministry said on Friday morning that a 74-year-old Chinese woman had been confirmed as being infected – the second case found in Thailand in less than a week.

China identifies new coronavirus behind Wuhan pneumonia outbreak

The second patient landed in Thailand on Monday, five days after a 61-year-old woman arriving in Bangkok from Wuhan was confirmed as the first case of the coronavirus outside China.

 

Both women were being treated at Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute, but Dr Sukhum Kanchanapimai, permanent secretary of the Thai health ministry, said at a press conference on Friday that there was no relation between the two cases.

Sukhum said that more than 13,000 travellers from Wuhan had been screened at four Thai airports in the previous fortnight.

 

He said the 61-year-old Chinese woman no longer had a fever but a second assessment was needed before she could be discharged.

Other Asian countries have reported confirmed or suspected cases of the coronavirus this week.

On Thursday, Japanese health authorities said a Chinese man in his 30s living in Kanagawa prefecture, south of Tokyo, had 
tested positive
 for the new strain after visiting Wuhan and having close contact with a patient. The man was discharged on Wednesday.

The same day, Singapore’s health ministry reported its third suspected case, saying it had quarantined a 69-year-old man who had been diagnosed with pneumonia after visiting Wuhan. Two Chinese nationals from Wuhan had previously been placed in quarantine in the city but later tested negative for the coronavirus.

As a precautionary measure, two Chinese tourists from Wuhan were quarantined by Vietnam’s Ministry of Health after showing fever symptoms when they landed at Da Nang airport on Tuesday.

The strain found in Wuhan, named 2019-nCoV by the World Health Organisation (WHO), is the latest of the seven known human coronaviruses. Of the six that were previously known, four caused only minor respiratory symptoms similar to those of a cold. The other two are 
severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars)
, which killed more than 700 people worldwide in 2002-03 after originating in China, and Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers), which has killed more than 850 around the world since 2012.
The new strain 
has been found
 in samples taken from Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, where many of the patients had been vendors, handlers or frequent visitors. Some of those testing positive for the virus have denied ever going to the market, raising fears of limited human-to-human transmission.

While the Chinese health authorities continued to look for the source of the infection, the WHO said it was unsurprising that there had been cases outside China and further cases could be found in other countries.

“We are still in the early stages of understanding this new virus, where it came from and how it affects people,” a spokesperson told the South China Morning Post. “There are still many unknowns, and the situation may continue to evolve.”

The organisation has not recommended any restrictions on travel or trade. Meanwhile, authorities in Wuhan have stepped up efforts to contain the spread of the virus by setting up temperature detectors in its international airport and three major railway stations. Those confirmed to have a body temperature of 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) or above would be taken into temporary quarantine, the local transport authority said.

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https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3046501/china-reports-second-death-wuhan-coronavirus

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