(Bloomberg) — A pneumonia outbreak in China that’s infected 15 more people doesn’t appear to be spreading from human to human, officials said, after ruling out SARS as a potential cause of the mysterious disease.
As of Sunday morning, 59 people had been diagnosed with pneumonia, the cause of which is unknown, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said in a statement late Sunday. That’s up from 44 on Friday. Seven people are in serious condition. Investigations found some patients are business operators at a seafood market in the central Chinese city.
“As of now, preliminary investigations have shown no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission and no medical staff infections,” the commission said in the statement in Chinese. Reported symptoms are mainly fever, while some have had shortness of breath.
Cases involving health-care workers would be a worrying sign that the infectious agent is capable of spreading between people, potentially touching off an epidemic like the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, that killed almost 800 people about 17 years ago.
Respiratory pathogens such as influenza, avian influenza, adenovirus, SARS and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, or MERS-cov, have been excluded, authorities in Wuhan said. Pathogen identification is still under way, they said.
“The reporting patterns for both SARS and MERS involved high severity illness among health-care workers, particularly in the intensive care units,” said James M. Wilson, a pediatrician who has helped monitor health security threats for 25 years. “That is a critical, priority indicator that we are not seeing in this case — a reassuring sign.”
Central Hospital in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where an “unknown pneumonia” has so far affected nearly 30 people.
Handout
Among the 59 patients, the first developed symptoms on Dec. 12 and the latest on Dec. 29. Some 163 people who have been in close contact with cases have been followed up for medical observation, the commission said.
The situation is being monitored by the World Health Organization, which said it’s in active communication with its counterparts in China.
The United Nations agency activated its incident-management system at the country, regional and global level and is standing ready to launch a broader response if it’s needed, the WHO’s regional office in Manila said in Twitter posts Saturday.
Authorities in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore increased precautions at airports to prevent any possible spread of the infections.
Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection said its enhanced surveillance system picked up 16 sick people who had recently traveled to Wuhan. Most of them tested positive for flu. Six had no positive lab results. Authorities have found no discernible link between these cases and the pneumonia cluster in Wuhan.
A 3-year-old girl with a history of travel to Wuhan who was hospitalized in Singapore with pneumonia turned out to have Respiratory Syncytial Virus, a common cause of childhood pneumonia, and isn’t linked to the Wuhan pneumonia cases, the city’s Ministry of Health said Monday.
The Wuhan seafood market, which has since been closed, also sold birds, pheasants, and snakes, along with organs of rabbits and other wildlife, the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy said Friday, citing media reports.
That’s triggered concern about the potential jump of an unknown virus to humans — reminiscent of SARS, which was subsequently identified as a coronavirus.
Since then, scientists have discovered other novel coronaviruses, including MERS-CoV, which are now “readily recognized as routine causes of severe respiratory illness,” said Wilson, a former chief of operations with the Department of Homeland Security’s National Biosurveillance Integration Center. “This increased awareness is thanks to SARS, MERS, and dramatically improved access to diagnostics,” he said.
It’s not known whether a SARS-like “coronavirus” has been identified in the Wuhan cluster, although there have been “numerous unsubstantiated reports mentioning a novel coronavirus that is SARS-like,” the International Society for Infectious Diseases’ ProMED-mail program, an internet service to identify unusual health events, said in an email Friday.
“If test results indicate there is novel respiratory pathogen involved, then China should be commended for rapid detection and response — the epitome of what is supposed to happen,” Wilson said.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
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