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China Confirms Human-To-Human Transmission of New Coronavirus; CDC Confirms First US Case

posted by martyb on Tuesday January 21 2020, @10:46PM   
from the Plague-Doctor dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

China confirms human-to-human transmission of new coronavirus:

Human-to-human transmission of a new coronavirus strain has been confirmed in China, fueling fears of a major outbreak of the SARS-like virus as millions travel for the Lunar New Year holiday.

Zhong Nanshan, head of the National Health Commission, said on Monday patients may have contracted the new virus without having visited the central city of Wuhan where it was discovered before spreading across China and reaching three other Asian nations.

"Currently, it can be said it is affirmative that there is the phenomenon of human-to-human transmission," he said in an interview with China's CCTV state broadcaster.

Zhong said two people in Guangdong province in southern China caught the disease from family members who had visited Wuhan.

He added that 14 medical personnel helping with coronavirus patients have also been infected.

Human-to-human transmission could make the virus spread more quickly and widely.

CDC Confirms First US Case of New Coronavirus

Public health officials have confirmed the first U.S. case of a mysterious coronavirus that has already killed at least six people and sickened hundreds of others in China, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.

A male traveler from China has been diagnosed in Snohomish County, Washington State with the Wuhan coronavirus, according to the CDC.

Officials said the sick male, in his 30s, is “very healthy.” He is currently being isolated at a medical center in the state “out of caution” and “poses little risk” to the public, they said. The CDC said the male reached out to local health authorities on Jan. 15 once he started experiencing pneumonia-like symptoms.

Previously:
China Reports 3rd Death, Nearly 140 New Cases of Coronavirus

Original Submission

• Re:Oh gee another strain with 3% fatality rate... Re:Oh gee another strain with 3% fatality rate... (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 22 2020, @09:04AM (1 child)

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 22 2020, @09:04AM (#946765)

  counting family at ~6 and close friends at ~7, a 3% deathrate is close to claiming one of them. if you add neighbours, you're almost certainly going to at least one funeral. while I find it easy enough to write this down, I don't believe I'm taking it lightly. 3% of the world's population dying would lead to huge changes for the rest as well, for instance a couple of extra civil wars (because someone would be blamed, and someone would be punished). I'm not sure to what extent your opinion or actions matter, but I would recommend that you take a few minutes to really think about the situation.

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• Re:Oh gee another strain with 3% fatality rate... (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 22 2020, @11:30AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 22 2020, @11:30AM (#946784)

  Why don't you use some common sense before letting the news control your emotions?

  That is 3% of people *who went to the hospital because they felt very sick*. It is not 3% of people exposed to the virus or even 3% of people infected with the virus.

  Also, all respiratory infections consume vitamin c in your lungs which leads to weakened connective tissue and then pneumonia. If it becomes bad enough you can become critically ill and die. So... take as much as you need, the standard low dose given in the hospital is known to be insufficient. The pharmacokinetics of vitamin C is different in sick people than healthy people, and all the debunkers do is cite studies done in healthy people. When you are sick you need at least 30x more vitamin c than when you are healthy to see the same effects:

  The American Medical Association’s Nutrition Advisory Board recommends an intake of 100 mg/day vitamin C via liquid nutrition [47]. However, hypovitaminosis C was not prevented in our patients with the use of standard enteral and/or parenteral nutrition, despite our TPN containing additional vitamin C (i.e., a total of nearly 200 mg/L). These results agree with data reported by others who have shown that parenteral intakes of ~ 300 mg/day did not change their patients’ plasma vitamin C concentrations [13, 27]. In comparison, intakes of 150–200 mg/day will saturate the plasma of healthy individuals [23], although we and others have observed decreased response to supplementation in individuals with hypovitaminosis C [48, 49]. Uncomplicated surgical patients require > 500 mg/day of vitamin C, with much higher doses required in surgical ICU patients [50]. Parentaeral administration of ≥ 1000 mg/day vitamin C to critically ill patients was barely sufficient to raise plasma vitamin C concentrations above hypovitaminosis C levels [13, 27]. Recent pharmacokinetic data in critically ill patients indicate that ≥ 2000 mg/day is required to normalise plasma vitamin C levels [51], and 3000 mg/day has been shown to result in saturating levels (i.e., 68 μmol/L), as evidenced by enhanced urinary excretion [13].

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5725835/ [nih.gov]

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