More than 900 people have contracted the new corona virus. Scientists fear that the actual number of infected people is much higher. Another virus is far more threatening for people in Europe. An overview in graphics.
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The new corona virus from China, or nCoV for short, has now reached Europe. France’s health minister Agnes Buzyn said Friday evening that one patient was in the hospital in Paris, another in Bordeaux. Both sufferers were in China. The World Health Organization organized emergency meetings this week to assess global risk. The experts do not yet see any international health emergency in the outbreak. However, the numbers from Asia are frightening: the number of registered cases has more than doubled in seven days. More than 900 people were recently infected, at least 26 were killed by the virus, which is related to the Sars pathogen. So far it is difficult to estimate how many undiscovered cases there are. Depending on the calculation model, the true number of infected people could be up to ten times larger than that of the officially diagnosed cases. More conservative estimates are around 4,000 people infected.
It is also unclear how easily the virus is transmitted from person to person and how dangerous it really is. So far, it seems to be a deadly danger, especially for people with previous illnesses. Another virus is currently far more threatening for people in Europe. Since the start of the flu season in December, more than 13,000 people have contracted influenza viruses in Germany alone, 32 of whom have died.
