The number of infections with the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in mainland China has exceeded that of the SARS epidemic in the country in 2002-2003, according to official figures released this Wednesday.
Chinese health authorities on Wednesday counted 5,974 confirmed cases of contamination in mainland China, more than 1,400 more than the previous day, while the toll worsened with 132 deaths. SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), also a coronavirus, had infected 5,327 people in mainland China, and caused 349 deaths in the country.
774 dead of SARS in 2002-2003
Globally, according to the WHO, the SARS epidemic killed 774 out of 8096 cases in 2002-2003 before being brought under control.
Appeared in Wuhan (central China) in December, the new virus, like SARS, is transmitted between humans and results in serious respiratory problems. This virus, baptized 2019-nCoV, and that of SARS belong to the same family of coronaviruses, and have 80% of genetic similarities. The 2019-nCoV is however considered less “powerful” and more contagious.
“As we now see, this disease is not (…) as powerful as SARS,” Gao Fu, head of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters on Sunday.
On the other hand, the new virus has an incubation period of up to two weeks and “contagion is possible during the incubation period”, even before symptoms appear, “which is also very different from Sras “, noted Ma Xiaowei, head of the National Health Commission (CNS).
“Faster” propagation than Sras
“We have the impression (…) that today the spread of this virus is faster than SARS, but that on the other hand mortality is much lower”, added the French Minister of Health, Agnes Buzyn.
According to the WHO, SARS had reached a mortality rate of 9.5% (compared to 34.5% for the only other epidemic caused by a coronavirus, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or Mers, which appeared in 2012 in the Arabian Peninsula).
That of the new coronavirus is well below even if, in the opinion of experts, the data are still only indicative, for lack of knowing exactly the real number of infected people – since patients with only a few, if not, symptoms were unlikely to be detected.
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