Wuhan virus is spreading person to person

Chinese health officials say medical staff among those infected as number of cases surges to more than 200

CHINA has confirmed the virus sweeping through the country can be spread from person to person, as the death toll rose to three ahead of mass travel for the Lunar New Year holiday.

Zhong Nanshan, a respiratory expert and the man who helped control the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2002-03, told state media that two people in Guangdong province in southern China had caught the so-called Wuhanvirus, a novel coronavirus, from family members.

China’s National Health Commission also reported that some medical workers had tested positive for the virus.

Health workers are often the most vulnerable in infectious disease outbreaks and the fact that none had been infected was seen as a sign that China’s infection control measures were strong. However, this development showed that the virus, first identified in the city of Wuhan, could spread more easily than authorities first thought. The number of cases in China surged to 217 over the weekend, with two in Thailand, one in Japan and one in South Korea.

An Indian woman working in China is believed to be the first foreigner to have contracted the disease. Preeti Maheshwari, 45, a teacher at an international school, was taken to hospital in Shenzhen, after falling seriously ill on

Friday with pneumonia-like symptoms. Her husband told media that doctors had confirmed she was suffering from the coronavirus.

India issued a travel advisory to its citizens, particularly for Wuhan, where 500 Indian medical students are studying. Many of those students are believed to have returned to India ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, Asia’s busiest travel period when hundreds of millions are expected to travel.

Asian and US health officials plan to screen passengers arriving from China. Most of the cases of the disease are in

Wuhan, where the virus emerged in late December, though 14 cases have been discovered in southern Guangdong province, five in the capital Beijing, and one in Shanghai.

A cover-up by Chinese authorities during the 2002-03 SARS virus was said to have exacerbated the epidemic, which eventually killed nearly 800 people globally.

However, China appears to be trying to stem concerns that it is failing to be transparent regarding this outbreak.

Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, emphasised that “people’s safety and health should be the top priority” and directed officials to “firmly contain the epidemic from spreading”.

Prof David Heymann, an infectious diseases expert at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said that the reason for the sudden upsurge in cases was because Chinese authorities were “looking harder and in different places”.

“The [World Health Organisation] feels they have been as transparent as possible and have done a good job in reporting,” he said.

Additional reporting by Yiyin Zhong