Before Shiyan, a city in Hubei province, went into quarantine, the sum of thirty yuan (about $4) could buy two cabbages, enough spring onions for two soups, a large white radish, two lettuces, a potato, and ten eggs. Not any more. Wanting to record the hiked prices, I took two photos of price cards in my local district’s largest supermarket. Immediately, a shop assistant approached. “You can’t do that,” she said. “Please delete them.” Even after I agreed, she stood peering over my shoulder to see my phone, to make sure that the images were gone. “You could report her,” a local resident told me later: national orders have forbidden merchants to raise their prices.… Seguir leyendo »
La única verdadera amenaza natural que pesa sobre la humanidad es el riesgo de una epidemia viral. Para dejar constancia, recordemos que hace un siglo la llamada gripe española mató a alrededor de cincuenta millones de personas en todos los continentes; la media de edad de las víctimas era de veinte años, y muchos murieron en un día. Una gripe comparable, llegada de México en 2009, mató al contagio a un millón de personas en Norteamérica, con una media de edad de cuarenta años. Estas gripes o neumonías, diferentes a las gripes estacionales corrientes, afectan a los jóvenes en lugar de a los ancianos, porque los más jóvenes, que nunca han estado expuestos a este tipo de virus, no tienen ninguna inmunidad natural.… Seguir leyendo »
La aparición en China de un brote de neumonía provocado por un coronavirus (2019-nCoV) es un desafío para los virólogos, que han emprendido una carrera contrarreloj para obtener más datos sobre la secuencia genética, la epidemiología y la propagación del patógeno.
La pregunta más urgente es determinar cómo se propaga. El seguimiento en tiempo real de la velocidad a la que aparecen los nuevos casos, junto con cuándo comenzaron los síntomas para cada uno de ellos, son las señales que indican a los expertos la facilidad con la que el virus puede circular entre humanos y si el brote tiene el potencial de persistir.… Seguir leyendo »
Five cases of the mysterious Wuhan coronavirus have been confirmed in the United States, giving rise to concerns about a potential global pandemic. We’ve seen this story before, as health authorities working with threadbare data try to walk the line between epidemic readiness and needless panic. Is this new outbreak poised to become the next AIDS pandemic or a new SARS, which was stopped in its tracks after 774 deaths? To cut through the headlines, we can use a simple concept called the “epidemic triangle”. Employed by epidemiologists since the discipline’s earliest days, it is indispensable in predicting whether localized outbreaks will transform into full-blown epidemics.… Seguir leyendo »
The coronavirus epidemic in China is far more than a disease; it is the most serious challenge to the rule of President Xi Jinping and the direction he has taken China since he assumed power in 2012. The stakes are extraordinarily high. It is far too early to predict the beginning of the end of Xi’s political career, but the epidemic clearly is shaking China and Xi’s way of governance to its core.
Since the Chinese revolution of 1949, the central tension inside the country’s Communist Party has been between “reds” and “experts”, between ideology and know-how. This tension has real world significance.… Seguir leyendo »
Americans are watching with alarm as a new coronavirus spreads in China and cases pop up in the United States. They are barraged with information about what kinds of masks are best to prevent viral spread. Students are handing out masks in Seattle. Masks have run out in Brazos County, Tex.
Hang on.
I’ve worked as an emergency room physician. And as a New York Times correspondent in China, I covered the SARS outbreak in 2002 and 2003 during which a novel coronavirus first detected in Guangdong sickened more than 8,000 people and killed more than 800. My two children attended elementary school in Beijing throughout the outbreak.… Seguir leyendo »
Décidément la Chine est placée sous le signe des catastrophes sanitaires à répétition. En 2003, ce fut l’épidémie du SRAS [syndrome respiratoire aigu sévère] qui se répandit à travers le monde et fit plus de huit cents morts. Durant l’année du cochon, qui vient de se terminer ce 24 janvier, ce sont plus de trois cents millions de porcs qui ont dû être abattus dans le pays, et maintenant que l’année du rat débute, on se demande si ce n’est pas la mauvaise habitude des gourmets chinois de rechercher des aliments « exotiques » comme le rat des bambous ou la chauve-souris qui ont provoqué l’irruption d’un nouveau virus mortel à Wuhan.… Seguir leyendo »
On this date 17 years ago, I was covering the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus for several months as it spread across Asia, eventually reaching 37 countries, sickening 8,098 people and killing 774 of them.
So, as I read the first reports of a cluster of animal-market related illnesses, with the first patient exhibiting symptoms of pneumonia as early as December 12, 2019, I had a chilling sense of déjà vu. By New Year's Eve, it was obvious something akin to SARS -- as it turns out, the Wuhan coronavirus is in the same family of viruses as SARS and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) -- was unfolding in China.… Seguir leyendo »
As the Wuhan coronavirus continues to spread around the world, the World Health Organization's decision to hold off on declaring the outbreak "a public health emergency of international concern" is baffling.
The virus, which is similar to the fatal severe respiratory syndrome (SARS), first emerged in Wuhan, China, which has a population greater than New York City. More than 1,900 people have already been infected, and more than 55 people have died. To contain the virus during the Lunar New Year, which marks the largest annual human migration in the world, the Chinese government placed a lockdown on 12 cities, affecting about 35 million people.… Seguir leyendo »
Les images qui nous parviennent de Chine montrant l’épidémie de coronavirus semblent nous ramener dix-sept ans en arrière, au moment de la crise du SRAS [syndrome respiratoire aigu sévère]. Cependant, comparaison ne vaut pas raison, le pays ayant énormément changé dans de nombreuses dimensions, en particulier celle de son système de santé, en première ligne pour enrayer l’épidémie.
Dispensaire et établissement hospitalier
En effet, lorsque le SRAS est apparu fin 2002, le système de santé mis en place après la prise de pouvoir par Mao en 1949 s’était totalement disloqué sans qu’un autre l’ait remplacé. Avant les réformes économiques, il était déjà très hiérarchisé et décentralisé.… Seguir leyendo »
On Thursday, after delaying for an extra day of deliberation, the World Health Organization decided not to declare the outbreak of pneumonia caused by a new coronavirus to be a PHEIC — a public health emergency of international concern.
The WHO’s decision has surprised many global health experts, particularly after the urgency and severity of China’s internal response. A lockdown of the city of Wuhan has become an unprecedented quarantine of 48 million people in central China. The WHO announcement raises critical questions about how the organization makes its decisions — and, in particular, the role of politics in that process.… Seguir leyendo »
Aujourd’hui, c’est le jour du réveillon. Wuhan n’a jamais été aussi désolée. Ce devrait être le moment où l’on se réunit pour fêter la nouvelle année, mais d’innombrables repas de fête de famille viennent d’être annulés. J’ai vu hier des photos de la ville placée sous scellés. Ici, ce sont des policiers et des militaires au visage figé, là, ce sont des voyageurs désespérés. Sur les vidéos, on entend des voix à l’accent de Wuhan qui disent : « Regardez ! c’est la première fois en cent ans que la gare de Hankou a été barricadée. » Les passants se sentent angoissés.… Seguir leyendo »
Los virólogos somos gente rara, muy rara. Aunque estemos de vacaciones consultamos las redes sociales para ver qué hay de “lo nuestro”. Esa fue la razón de que se nos atragantara el roscón la noche del 5 de enero. “Parece que tenemos un nuevo virus en China”, dijimos.
Durante la celebración del cambio de año occidental, las agencias de sanidad chinas comunicaron la aparición de casos de neumonía atípica de origen desconocido en la ciudad de Wuhan. Estos se asociaron desde el principio a un mercado de abastos donde se comercia con animales vivos.
When it comes to emerging infectious diseases – those newly recognized in humans or in new locations – it is not only what we know that matters but also what we do not know.
An outbreak of a new coronavirus first reported in Wuhan, China, which has so far led to more than 500 confirmed cases and multiple deaths across five countries (and two continents) has prompted the question from several corners of the world: Should we be worried?
Although expert teams coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO) are working on key questions to get answers as soon as possible, the level of uncertainty is still high.… Seguir leyendo »
On Sunday, a friend of mine in China wrote an ominous, two-word post on WeChat: “Broke out.” He meant that a mysterious surge in cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, a city in central China, was, in fact, an outbreak of something more serious.
The first case of the Wuhan virus was detected on Dec. 12. Until last Thursday, only 45 cases, with two deaths, all in Wuhan, had been reported, and no health care workers were said to have been infected. The virus was mild, we were told then, with no evidence of human-to-human transmission; all confirmed cases seemed to originate from a food market where live animals are sold.… Seguir leyendo »
Cuando uno se entera de que tiene una enfermedad peligrosa, debe poder confiar en su médico. Cuando poblaciones enteras enfrentan una peligrosa crisis de salud pública, necesitan poder confiar en su gobierno. La última prueba para esta confianza es el brote de un coronavirus desconocido que surgió en Wuhan, China.
Los coronavirus son virus respiratorios que pueden provocar enfermedades que van desde resfriados leves hasta una neumonía potencialmente mortal. Al igual que otros virus, no responden a los antibióticos. Esta cepa, llamada 2019-nCoV, es demasiado nueva para poder tener cualquier información útil sobre su mortalidad. Se ha reportado que otros dos coronavirus, el síndrome respiratorio agudo severo (SARS), y el síndrome respiratorio del Medio Oriente (MERS), matan alrededor de 15% y 35% de personas infectadas, respectivamente.… Seguir leyendo »
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