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Concerning news about the Wuhan virus: The number of deaths has skyrocketed, experts fear airborne transmission.
The number of deaths from the new lung disease in China has skyrocketed to 17. With a good 150 proofs within one day, the number of virus infections recorded also increased sharply. By evening (local time), 473 people were found to be infected with the Wuhan coronavirus. On Wednesday alone, the death toll rose from 6 to 17, according to the government of the Hubei province in the severely affected metropolis of Wuhan. Other infections have also become known outside of China. A case was first reported in the United States.
So far there is no evidence in Europe. According to the Federal Government, the spread of the new lung disease means only a "very low" health risk for people in Germany. There is no reason to fall into alarmism now, said a spokesman for Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU).
In the United States, a man fell ill who returned to the west coast metropolis of Seattle after a trip to the Chinese city of Wuhan on January 15, the CDC announced on Tuesday (local time).
The man in his 30s had not noticed any symptoms on the return trip, but later went to a hospital for an examination. His condition is good. There is only a very small risk that he could have infected other people, it said. The authorities are in the process of compiling a list of the people with whom the man has had contact.
The disease had previously been proven in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand - so far, only in people who had previously been in China. In Thailand there are now four new cases with two new cases, as the Ministry of Health announced. Thailand's authorities have therefore checked around 20,000 people for possible symptoms, such as fever, that had come from Wuhan on flights since early January.
Russia wants to step up controls at all border posts. "We want to prevent the corona virus from being introduced into our country," said Yelena Yeshlowa of the Russian consumer protection agency, the Tass agency. Especially at the approximately 4,200 km long border with China, travelers are to be checked with temperature measurements and additionally interviewed.
It is believed that the new corona virus comes from a fish market in the central Chinese metropolis of 11 million Wuhan, where wild animals were also sold. Gao Fu, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control, said the source was now believed to be a wild animal on the market. According to this, there were initially transmissions from animals to humans before the virus adapted to its new host and there were transmissions between humans.
There are indications of an "air transmission," said Vice Minister of the National Health Commission, Li Bin. “Air transmission” is generally used to describe the absorption of pathogens via so-called aerosols, which can arise when coughing and especially when sneezing. However, these also disappear from the air very quickly, so that direct contact with the person causing the aerosol is usually necessary for infection.
A transfer is also possible over surfaces on which the small droplets settle if they are touched by hand and then come into contact with a mucous membrane or its immediate vicinity (such as the nose or eye).
Travel wave risk
With the current wave of travel to the Chinese New Year next Saturday, the risk of transmission of the virus is growing. Hundreds of millions of Chinese are on the move during the largest annual migration. Health experts warned that it was possible that there were particularly infectious patients who could spread the virus more quickly. There were also cases of so-called "super spreaders" in China during the Sars pandemic, in which around 800 people died in 2002/2003.
