The video tells that many doctors have died of the virus. There is no independent confirmation of this. It is clear, however, that hospital staff have become ill and that the remaining staff can hardly cope with the crowds.
The peak of the outbreak seems not yet in sight, says Aura Timen, head of the coordination center for infectious disease control at RIVM. “You know that the peak is reached when the daily rise stabilizes or decreases. It doesn’t seem to be that far yet.” She points to the increase in the number of cases in Hubei, despite the drastic measures that have been taken. “So we are not there yet.”
Timen thinks that people are aware of the seriousness of the situation because of the extensive attention for the virus. “People might allow themselves to be tested earlier by the publicity. But that cannot be verified from here.”
What you also see is that the virus is not spreading widely in other countries. Timen calls that reassurance and proof that the measures work. People who come from Hubei are quarantined for fourteen days.
Do not trade live animals
Someone who is infected, on average, infects two to three others. That is about the same as with SARS, Timen knows. With MERS, also a coronavirus, an average of 0.7 people are infected in the area, but the mortality rate is much higher: 30 percent. With SARS that is 10 percent and with this new virus 2 percent. That is slightly more than with a normal flu, which, according to Timen, 0.5 percent of patients die.
So most people who have the Wuhan virus get better. There is no treatment for the virus. “Sickness and support of the body. That means that people who end up in the hospital are ventilated because of the lung infection. The symptoms are very much like a normal flu. Only the seriously ill get pneumonia.”
How the infection from animal to human originated, is not yet clear according to Timen and that can take a while. It is therefore difficult to say how such a contamination can be prevented. “We don’t know the answer to that. But the risk of trading live animals remains. We assume that it has been a bat, but that is not yet 100 percent certain. SARS only discovered years later that civet cats were infected by bats. It is better not to trade live animals. “
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