Kent Sepkowitz

Este archivo solo abarca los artículos del autor incorporados a este sitio a partir del 1 de diciembre de 2006. Para fechas anteriores realice una búsqueda entrecomillando su nombre.

Europa, , ,

For almost two weeks, three countries have led the rest of the world in the daily number of new Covid-19 infections: The United States, Russia and Brazil.

This makes some sense -- each is in the top 10 of most populous countries with well over 125 million people and each has a few very crowded cities. Furthermore, each country was disorganized and disbelieving as the disease settled in their region.

But one important difference separates Russia from the other two nations. As of Monday, in the United States, which has been in the midst of the pandemic for almost two months, the mortality rate from Covid-19 was 6%, according to Johns Hopkins; in Brazil, hard-hit for a month, the mortality was nearly 7%.…  Seguir leyendo »

A diagram from the CDC site shows the floor plan of the 11th floor of a building in Seoul, South Korea, that was the site of a coronavirus disease outbreak in 2020. The blue shading shows the seating locations of people who became infected.

MundoAsia, , ,

The most complicated issue in America right now is how, when and where to reopen the cities and towns that have been sheltered in place. Everyone wants resumption of the mobile life of social proximity we enjoyed a few months ago but balancing this against the competing need to assure both individual safety and -- because this is a contagious disease -- societal safety remains a substantial challenge.

Fortunately, a new study from South Korea has just been published in "early release" form (it is final and peer-reviewed, just early) in the CDC medical journal, Emerging Infectious Disease.

Titled "Coronavirus Disease Outbreak in Call Center, South Korea," it describes how South Korea dealt with an outbreak in a high-rise building in the busiest part of Seoul with an early, decisive intervention that included closing the entire building, extensive testing and quarantine of infected people and their contacts.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea, , , ,

As Covid-19 closes in on the United States, physicians and epidemiologists and crystal ball spinners are trying to forecast just how bad things might get. Right now, cases are already in the tens of thousands and climbing every day. The enormous costs to society and to individuals seem too staggering to comprehend.

The number of deaths, however, is the most important measure to define where this pandemic settles in the grim lineup of previous catastrophic infectious diseases. Worldwide, more than 4% of patients—nearing 19,000 -- have died, with many more to come, and each death its own heartbreaking story.

As of this past weekend, nine countries had diagnosed more than 9,000 cases, and three -- South Korea, Switzerland, and Germany -- had deaths rates well below the others.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalSalud Pública, , ,

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to worsen, much attention in the US has been given to improving the availability of the diagnostic test.

Though testing is known to effectively reduce the risk of transmission, many experts are beginning to also associate more widespread testing with the statistic of greatest concern -- survival from the disease.

The connection seems straightforward. Consider two countries with large outbreaks.

In South Korea, the rate of testing has been quite high (3,692 tests per million people as of March 8), and its mortality among those infected quite low (about 0.6%, or 66 deaths, at last count).…  Seguir leyendo »