UK tests 14 people for Chinese coronavirus
pharmafile | January 24, 2020 | News story | Medical Communications | Chinese Coronavirus, NHS, Public Health England, Viral outbreaks, Viral pnemonia, coronavirus, epidemic
14 people in the UK have been tested for the Chinese coronavirus, according to Public Health England (PHE).
In Scotland, five people have been tested and an incident team has been set up to deal with the health threat. A Welsh resident was also tested for the virus but the results cleared them. In Belfast, one man was treated for coronavirus symptoms and all the patients had been to Wuhan in China, where the outbreak began.
Professor Paul Cosford, Medicial Director at Public Health England, said: “These are early days yet with this virus. The vast majority of people who are infected do seem to be getting better.
“The people who have done particularly badly, and sadly died, they seem to be people who have other conditions that might make them more likely to suffer badly with this virus.”
The outbreak began on 12 December, and has been traced to a Wuhan market that sold meat and animals. The disease is thought to come from animal products. Currently known as 2019-nCoV, the virus is understood to be a new strain of coronavirus not previously identified in humans.
This episode is reminiscent of the SARS epidemic in 2003 that spread to Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Canada; it killed 774 people and infected over 8,000. Chinese scientists reported that they had generated the genetic sequence of the new virus and it is a coronavirus that is in the same group as SARS and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus).
Conor Kavanagh
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