Dangerous Corona virus in the UK

UK-proven coronavirus transmissible from person to person

14/02/2013

In the UK, an infection with the novel coronavirus "NCoV" was again detected. Similar coronaviruses were also the cause of the SARS pandemic in 2002 and 2003. The current evidence of dangerous coronaviruses is thought to be transmitted within the United Kingdom because the person concerned did not spend any time abroad in the past months, according to the British announcement „Health Protection Agency“ (HPA). For the first time, a human-to-human transmission is thus confirmed in the novel pathogen.

In view of the renewed evidence of the novel coronavirus, the British authorities were alarmed. The infection was found in a family member of previously ill people on Monday. Thus, the number of globally registered infections with the dangerous coronavirus increased to a total of eleven, three of which concerned people in the UK. The sick person is currently under intensive care at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, according to the HPA statement. Professor John Watson, chief of the Department of Respiratory Diseases at the HPA, said the evidence of „Novel coronavirus infection in a person without previous travel in the Middle East indicates that a human-to-human transmission has taken place in the UK.“

First transmission of novel pathogens in the UK
According to the British Health Authority, all patients who have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus infection in the UK have been infected during a trip abroad to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Qatar. Thus, the 60-year-old man, in which now apparently another family member has been infected, previously in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, reports the HPA. The infection of the now also affected family member was presumably favored by his previous illness and his already weakened immune system. Nevertheless, the "interpersonal transfer is quite surprising, since it was not known that the novel pathogens can be passed from person to person," says the British health authority.

Infections with the new coronaviruses are often fatal
The current detection of the novel coronavirus deliverere „Strong evidence of human-to-human transmission, with the risk of infection in most cases still being very low“ according to the HPA communication. For if the new coronavirus were highly infectious, a significantly larger number of affected persons would have been detected than had previously been observed in the past three months since the first proof of infection, according to the experts. Nevertheless, caution should be exercised, as the epidemiological potential of coronaviruses could be illustrated by the SARS pandemic some ten years ago. At that time, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) around 800 people had died from the consequences of SARS infection. According to the experts, the high mortality of current coronavirus infections is critical. Of the eleven patients who have previously been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus NCoV, five have died, according to the HPA.

Propagation of the new coronaviruses under observation
It is not only the World Health Organization and the HPA who advise the attention of the mutant coronaviruses to carefully monitor their distribution. The National Health Authorities have been called by WHO to closely monitor the occurrence of severe acute respiratory disease. Unusual distribution patterns are "urgently to be examined in detail". Patients with "no apparent cause of severe pneumonia or other serious respiratory disease should undergo a coronavirus test," according to the WHO and HPA recommendations. However, the British Health Authority emphasized „In view of the recent case that the risk of infection with the novel coronavirus remains very low for the British population.“

Signs of infection with the new coronaviruses
As evidence of infection with the novel coronavirus, in addition to inflammation of the respiratory tract or both lungs also more general symptoms such as high fever, cough, dyspnea, body aches and headache called. However, so far, the risk of infection has been extremely low, given the extremely low global spread of new coronaviruses. According to the HPA, this has also been confirmed by the low transmission rate in the vicinity of already ill patients. (Fp)

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