Thailand confirms fifth case of new coronavirus

By Panarat Thepgumpanat

 

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand on Friday confirmed its fifth case of the new coronavirus, a senior public health official said, in the second instance in which a patient was not detected at the airport before entering the country.

 

“The patient is a 33-year-old woman from Wuhan on vacation,” Deputy Public Health Minister Sathit Patucha told Reuters, adding that she was under quarantine at Rajavithi hospital and her condition was improving.

 

The woman arrived in Bangkok on Jan. 21 with her daughter and visited a private hospital complaining of a fever, coughing and muscle aches before being transferred to a government hospital on Jan. 23, Sathit said.

 

Her daughter tested negative for the virus.

 

A Thai woman who contracted the virus after spending the New Year in Wuhan was admitted to Nakhon Pathom hospital, 60 km (40 miles) west of Bangkok, on Jan. 15 and discharged on Friday after lab tests cleared her of the virus, the Public Health Ministry said in a statement.

 

Thailand currently has two patients under quarantine for the virus.

 

China has stepped up measures to contain the virus, which has killed 25 people and infected more than 800, with public transport suspensions in 10 cities, temples shutting, and the rapid construction of a new hospital to treat those infected.

 

The Wuhan airport was closed on Jan. 23.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-01-24

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So she was out and about two days before checking in. It's likely there are hundreds like her walking about. Infrared scanners at airports are useless when the incubation time is two weeks. 

1 minute ago, DrTuner said:

So she was out and about two days before checking in. It's likely there are hundreds like her walking about. Infrared scanners at airports are useless when the incubation time is two weeks. 

I wonder if it is transmittable during the incubation period.

2 minutes ago, sirineou said:

I wonder if it is transmittable during the incubation period.

WHO states it's still pretty much unknown: https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/23-01-2020-statement-on-the-meeting-of-the-international-health-regulations-(2005)-emergency-committee-regarding-the-outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov)

 

Quote

The source is still unknown (most likely an animal reservoir) and the extent of human-to-human transmission is still not clear. 

 

We'll see.

Stop all flights from China, please. 

maybe retrofit C.M back into a fortress...

make it aka zombie proof 

 

3 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

WHO states it's still pretty much unknown: https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/23-01-2020-statement-on-the-meeting-of-the-international-health-regulations-(2005)-emergency-committee-regarding-the-outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov)

I could not find that information in the provided link.

If I understood correctly, they don't know yet and are looking in to it. 

I hope it is not transmittable during the incubation period, because as you said it would be difficult to contain.

This is what I found about Influenza transmission  in general:

"Once you have the influenza virus, you can spread it to other people about a day before you first notice symptoms. "

https://www.healthline.com/health/flu-incubation-period#incubation-period

14 minutes ago, sirineou said:

This is what I found about Influenza transmission  in general:

"Once you have the influenza virus, you can spread it to other people about a day before you first notice symptoms. "

https://www.healthline.com/health/flu-incubation-period#incubation-period

This one is a coronavirus, not influenza. Same as SARS, MERS, not the influenza HxNy. The initial symptoms happen to be same as for the flu, which creates confusion and as testing seems to be laborious (24h to get results), they won't be testing everyone who has flu-like symptoms. The real status will only be known once those who have the virus have either died or survived. It'll take weeks just to know what the situation today was.

 

EDIT: SARS seems to be contagious from the start of the symptoms, not so much during the incubation period. https://www.cdc.gov/sars/about/faq.html

Quote

Is a person with SARS contagious before symptoms appear?
To date, no cases of SARS have been reported among persons who were exposed to a SARS patient before the onset of the patient’s symptoms.

 

No guarantee this one isn't, even if they are same type of virus.

6 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

This one is a coronavirus, not influenza. Same as SARS, MERS, not the influenza HxNy. The initial symptoms happen to be same, which creates confusion and as testing seems to be laborious (24h to get results), they won't be testing everyone who has flu-like symptoms. The real status will only be known once those who have the virus have either died or survived. It'll take weeks just to know what the situation today was.

 

 

According to the CDC , MERS transmission during the incubation period was limited, if I understood correctly.

"The median incubation period for secondary cases associated with limited human-to-human transmission is approximately 5 days (range 2-14 days). In MERS "

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/mers/clinical-features.html

 

or was it "limiter contact transmission" hard to understand the above sentence. 

 

 

5 day incubation period before symptoms are observed.

So thousands of Chinese could have entered Thailand without any symptoms. 
This is only going to get worse I fear.

Plainly Thailand has signed into an epidemic disaster to have all the more and more Chinese tourists come here because of the tourism predicament and celebrate the Chinese New Year here. I had better not get sick. I only wish they invite the majority of Chinese tourists into see the Parliament sessions when all the big shots are in house. Let their own dice roll, and at least Thanathorn is safe!

BTW the mortality keeps going up, no surprise really since it takes time to die from pneumonia and we're just seeing the start of it. Yesterday WHO (https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/23-01-2020-statement-on-the-meeting-of-the-international-health-regulations-(2005)-emergency-committee-regarding-the-outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov)) had:

Quote

the proportion of deaths in currently reported cases of 4% (17 of 557)

 

I think it was 2.7% or something the day before.

Scary stuff, especially with Chinese New Year now

I thought a handful of cities were under quarantine, meaning nobody is to leave and spread the illness. I did see that some of the cities, including ground zero, allowed motor vehicles to escape after a quick temperature check with probably something as effective as a Popsicle stick. We're doomed... probably for another couple of months. 

there are way more than 5....

Bloomberg is reporting the the death toll is 4% of known cases but it's highly likely there are lots of cases that are not yet reported......hopefully it will remain under 2%, fatalities seem to be mostly older people with pre-existing conditions.

2 hours ago, FruitPudding said:

Scary stuff, especially with Chinese New Year now

there will be a panic vendetta, to destroy Rats

a soothsayer will have foretold this was going to happen...

 

3 hours ago, FruitPudding said:

Scary stuff, especially with Chinese New Year now

To try and reduce the panic, the Thai Government have renamed the virus, they've called it Kung Flu.

13 hours ago, DrTuner said:

The source is still unknown (most likely an animal reservoir) and the extent of human-to-human transmission is still not clear. 

According to one of the world wide partner research units it can be human to human, but also a variant of it is carried by soil dust, but they unsure if the new virus can also be , news just gets better. Not flying China Air anytime soon

12 hours ago, holy cow cm said:

Plainly Thailand has signed into an epidemic disaster to have all the more and more Chinese tourists come here because of the tourism predicament and celebrate the Chinese New Year here. I had better not get sick. I only wish they invite the majority of Chinese tourists into see the Parliament sessions when all the big shots are in house. Let their own dice roll, and at least Thanathorn is safe!

Thailand is not alone on this....millions of Chinese have departed China for the new year to destinations everywhere...this has the possibility to escalate into a global crisis.

And countries will continue to kowtow to China because of money. They should be banned from everywhere!

13 hours ago, thisisrascal said:

Stop all flights from China, please. 

You're talking less money and lower statistics here, what are you a terrorist? ????

1 hour ago, tifino said:

there will be a panic vendetta, to destroy Rats

a soothsayer will have foretold this was going to happen...

 

Nostradamus would have known about this so it can't be that bad, he doesn't mention corona anywhere ????

4 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

Nostradamus would have known about this so it can't be that bad, he doesn't mention corona anywhere ????

Give it time - once the runes are consulted Nostradamus can be made to predict anything. And the Bible to boot. 

Chinese People know they are sick still visit Thailand, darn.

Of course you cannot diagnose a fever before the treveller  ( read putative  patient) develops one ! This said, it is  absolutely ridiculous to imply that arriving airport scanns are useless! They can - and will - at least get you into a hospital, where you will be diagnosed for the said  virus.  

With that kind of attitude, I would personally charge you double the fee for your authopsy, no matter the result would come out as WCV or simple stuppidity ! 

Kind regards 

Dr Rodrigues Pereira 

Prof. Pathology

 

 

 

Some troll posts have been removed. 

Stop letting Chinese in!

On top of all the confusion, I just read in the news that two women have been identified in France with the virus.

One of them, returning from Wusan appears to have deliberately taken a drug to suppress her symptoms and avoid detection at the airport.

How would you know what drug to take?

How many others have done the same thing?

Where are they?

Let's all calm down and avoid panicking,  there will be plenty of time for that in the coming weeks.  Of course you can thank me later for my pearls of wisdom....or now while your still abled! 

    Should have banned anyone from Wuhan from entering the country after the first cases--as a start.  Thailand is the most at risk because it gets the most Chinese visitors.  As always, money before anything else, including public safety.  Didn't some dingbat spokesperson from TAT say the other week don't worry it won't be a problem?  Let's assign her nurse duties for the 5--and counting--patients.