CORONAVIRUS
Experts
initially said that it did not appear to be readily spread by humans,
but on Monday Dr. Zhong, the scientist appointed by the government to
study the outbreak, said that in Guangdong, two individuals appeared to
have been infected by relatives who had traveled to Wuhan.
Dr.
Zhong said the virus could be present in particles of saliva. In one
case, he said, a patient appears to have infected 14 medical workers.
Coronaviruses
are named for the spikes that protrude from their membranes, like the
sun’s corona. Such viruses cause several illnesses of the respiratory
tract, ranging from the common cold to severe diseases like SARS. Dr.
Zhong was China’s leading SARS expert during that outbreak.
According to the World Health Organization,
common signs of infection include fever, cough, and respiratory
difficulties like shortness of breath. Serious cases can lead to
pneumonia, kidney failure and even death.
WUHAN,
China
— The mysterious coronavirus that has killed at least four people
and sickened more than 200 in China is capable of spreading from person
to person, a prominent Chinese scientist said on Monday, adding to
fears of a broader epidemic.
The
disclosure increased pressure on the Chinese government to contain a
growing public health crisis, just as China enters its busiest travel
season of the year. On Tuesday, the authorities confirmed a fourth death from the illness in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
The authorities had previously said the deadly virus seemed capable of spreading only from animals to humans in most cases, tracing the outbreak to a market in Wuhan.
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But
in recent days at least two people have become infected with the
pneumonialike virus even though they live hundreds of miles from Wuhan,
experts said on Monday, suggesting that the illness is spreading from
person to person.
“Now
we can say it is certain that it is a human-to-human transmission
phenomenon,” Dr. Zhong Nanshan, a scientist who is leading a
government-appointed expert panel on the outbreak, said in an interview
on state-run television on
The
World Health Organization announced Monday that it was convening an
emergency meeting on Wednesday “to ascertain whether the outbreak
constitutes a public health emergency of international concern, and what
recommendations should be made to manage it.”
Millions
of Chinese are traveling this week for the Lunar New Year holiday,
adding to fears that the virus could spread swiftly and on a broader
scale. Experts said the severity of the outbreak would now depend on how
many people, on average, a person with virus could infect.
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