China believes new virus behind mystery pneumonia outbreak
BEIJING: China believes a mysterious pneumonia outbreak that has struck 59 people is due to a new strain of virus from the family of pathogens that includes SARS, state media said yesterday.
The infection was first confirmed on December 31 in Wuhan, a central Chinese city with a population of over 11 million, and initially sparked fears about a resurgence of the highly contagious flu-like SARS.
It has also prompted authorities in Hong Kong – badly hit by SARS in 20022003 – to take precautionary measures, including stepping up the disinfection of trains and airplanes, including checks of passengers.
An expert team has ‘preliminarily determined’ that a new type of coronavirus is behind the outbreak, lead scientist Xu Jianguo told the official Xinhua news agency.
“A total of 15 positive results of the new type of coronavirus had been detected” in the lab, through tests on infected blood samples and throat swabs, Xu said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement Wednesday that a new coronavirus could not be excluded as a possible cause of the disease.
Xu said further research was needed on the nature of the outbreak.
China ruled out SARS, which killed hundreds of people more than a decade ago, in a statement on Sunday.
Wuhan’s health commission said on Sunday seven of the 59 patients were seriously ill but none had died.
All patients received treatment in quarantine.
Eight patients have recovered and were discharged from hospital on Wednesday, according to Xinhua.
No patients are known to have died so far.
The commission said the infection broke out between December 12 and 29, with some of the patients employed at a seafood market in the city that has since been closed for disinfection.
No obvious evidence of human-to-human transmission has been found so far, according to the commission’s statement on Sunday.
Footage from January 1 by state broadcaster CCTV showed an official notice at the market saying it had been closed in light of the ‘current pneumonia situation in our city’, without providing a date for reopening.
The outbreak comes just a few weeks before China’s busiest annual travel period, when millions of people take buses, trains and planes for Lunar New Year.
China’s Ministry of Transport has ‘made arrangements for disinfection, monitoring and prevention’ focusing on areas with large numbers of passengers, including stations and cargo hubs, the ministry’s chief engineer Wang Yang said at an annual press briefing yesterday.