France confirms first three cases of coronavirus in Europe

[The Lawspeaker]

Zut !

France confirms first three cases of coronavirus in Europe



France has confirmed the first three cases of coronavirus in Europe: two cases in Paris and one in Bordeaux.
They have been hospitalised and are currently isolated, the health ministry confirmed to Euronews.

It's likely there are other cases in Europe, France's health minister Agnès Buzyn told reporters, as she warned people who have travelled to China to avoid going to emergency rooms in the case that they have symptoms."It’s in emergency rooms in reality that people risk being in contact with others," Buzyn told reporters. People should instead call France's health service so that emergency workers can help them and isolate them from other people. It comes after China put as many as 36 million people on lockdown across 13 cities.

The death toll stands at 26.

Hundreds of cases have been confirmed in China, with South Korea and Japan both announcing second cases and Singapore two more for a total of three.
A 36-year-old man has died of the illness after suffering fever for three days in the Chinese province of Hubei, of which Wuhan is the capital. A total of 13 cities across the landlocked Chinese province have halted all flights, buses, trains and ferries leaving their environs in an attempt to contain the virus.

Meanwhile, the director-general of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the outbreak was not yet a global health emergency. Ghebreyesus was speaking after WHO's emergency committee met for a second day on Thursday to debate the epidemic.

Travel lockdown in China
In Hubei, bustling streets, shops, restaurants and other public spaces in the city were eerily empty.
The city of Wuhan announced this morning that it will build a designated hospital with space for 1,000 beds by February 3, in the style of a facility that Beijing constructed during the SARS epidemic in 2003.

Police, SWAT teams and paramilitary troops guarded the city's train station, where metal barriers blocked the entrances.
“To my knowledge, trying to contain a city of 11 million people is new to science," Gauden Galea, the World Health Organization's representative in China, told the AP.
“It has not been tried before as a public health measure. We cannot at this stage say it will or it will not work." Similar travel restrictions have applied in locked down cities this Friday.

As a symbol of the concern that has gripped China, the authorities have announced the closure of sections of the famous Great Wall, as well as Disneyland resort site in Shanghai.
At least 830 people have been diagnosed with the virus and 26 people have died, National Health Commission confirmed this morning.
Outside of China, there have been cases in the United States, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Singapore and Vietnam.

Ghebreyesus said that the measure in Wuhan was "strong" but that China would "minimise the chances of this outbreak spreading internationally".
"We commend their actions," he added, stating that the WHO will get more information from their team on the ground.

Global health officials are preparing for it to spread
The virus' incubation period is between two and 12 days, French Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn said at a press conference. Buzyn said the country stepped up efforts to inform the public, adding flyers in international airports on what to do if you suspect you have the virus.

But they do not plan to screen people for the fever in airports which she said was an ineffective method.
Health officials in Paris and in Lyon, however, will also be able to do a diagnostic test in health centres for the virus.

Experts at WHO warned the public not to underestimate the severity of the epidemic, stating that there were many sick people in the hospital in China right now.
The first case of coronavirus in Macao was confirmed on Wednesday, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The infected person, a 52-year-old woman, was a traveller from Wuhan.

Many of those who died were elderly or had other health risks, infectious disease epidemiologist Dr Maria D Van Kerkhove said at a WHO press conference. "The original source of the outbreak remains unknown and therefore further cases and deaths are expected in Wuhan, and in China. It is possible that further cases will also be detected among travellers from Wuhan to other countries."

According to the ECDC, China reported a cluster of pneumonia cases linked to a fish and live animal market in the city on December 31, 2019. Ten days later, China confirmed that the coronavirus was the cause. Three airports in the European Union (EU) have direct flight connections to Wuhan, while there are indirect flight connections to other European hubs.
Chinese New Year celebrations at the end of January will cause an increased travel volume to and from China and within China, the EDC said, increasing the likelihood of arrival in the EU of possible cases.

[The Lawspeaker]

Coronavirus: 'This outbreak is occurring in the worst possible time for Wuhan and for Europe'

At least 26 people have been killed so far and over 800 confirmed cases of the Coronavirus in China alone. Chinese authorities have suspended planes and trains in and out of Wuhan and seven neighbouring cities in an effort to control the spread of the illness.

A lockdown has taken place in 13 cities, affecting around 40 million people.
China is swiftly building a hospital dedicated to treating patients infected with a new Coronavirus.

In Europe, authorities are preparing to deal with the arrival of infected people as the virus spreads beyond Chinese borders. Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam are the latest countries to have registered confirmed cases. Health authorities in Italy, France and Germany are currently testing people arriving from Asia.

It is hoped the measures taken by Beijing will reduce the risk of international spread. But Pasi Penttinen, an expert in immunisation at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control says we are in peak Influenza ('flu') season - and this outbreak has come at the worst possible time for both Wuhan and for Europe:

“We are racing against the clock to be prepared for an eventual detection of a case coming in from Wuhan,” Penttinen said. He goes on: “Individuals who are infected cannot differentiate by themselves if they have the virus or the Influenza virus.”

After detecting a case, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, which works together with National Health Agencies across the EU, advise stringent preventive control measures to be taken to avoid the spreading of the illness. Hospitals and emergency wards are also being prepared to deal with the crisis in many European countries.

Jean Lang is the Head of Global Health and partnerships at vaccines maker Sanofi Pasteur in France. He says developing Coronavirus vaccines are very complex and long processes: “We all know the vaccines are need the most powerful preventative measures to be used... You need the virus sequence, then we need to carry out tests." He goes on: "We need to understand the virus and how it is transmitted from human to human first.”

Fourteen people in the UK are being tested for the virus according to Public Health England. The UK is a popular destination for Chinese students. The World Health Organisation say the situation is not yet bad enough to declare an International emergency.

[The Lawspeaker]

Coronavirus: How is the EU preparing for an outbreak, and why screening may be futile



European health authorities should be ready to tackle the coronavirus should it reach the Old Continent, the head of a top health agency told Euronews on Tuesday, as the number of fatalities rose in China.

Nine people are now known to have died from the respiratory virus in China, authorities confirmed after announcing that the disease could be transmitted from human-to-human.
More than 400 people have been infected with cases also reported in Japan, South Korea, Thailand and the US.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) on Wednesday considered the likelihood of introduction of the virus to the EU to be "moderate", warning also that the risk of arrival would increase in late January as people travelled to and from China to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

The Platform for European Preparedness Against (Re-)emerging Epidemics (PREPARE), an EU-funded project aimed at rapidly responding to outbreaks, activated its Mode 1 on Tuesday morning

“We consider that there’s a credible threat for a pandemic also in Europe,” Herman Goossens, PREPARE’s coordinator and the Director of Clinical Pathology at Antwerp’s University Hospital, told Euronews.

PREPARE’s Mode 1 involves getting clinical sites and diagnostics labs ready to deal with cases on European soil but also see researchers from various institutions discuss the research questions including the best treatment strategies for patients.

The outbreak currently concerning health officials worldwide is of a new strain of coronavirus (nCoV) which had not been previously identified in humans and for which there is no vaccine. Among the more serious viruses in the coronavirus family are the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).

According to the World Health Organisation, which convened an emergency meeting on the outbreak to be held on Wednesday, common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties with pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, and kidney failure among the most serious symptoms.
But contrary to previous pandemics, the international response has so far been “very fast”, Herman Goossens stressed.

“Now, fortunately, we know the sequence — the Chinese released that information 10 days ago — and a test has been validated by European researchers,” he said.
“The sequencing data was released very fast, the diagnostics test was developed very fast and we’re already discussing the clinical protocol. I’ve never seen this kind of response in previous epidemics or pandemics,” Goossens added.

"Is the EU equipped to deal with an outbreak? Yes, or not yet but it should be," before the end of January and beginning of February, when cases are more likely to be reported, he went on.
Supporting diagnostics labs will be critical, he continued, as the winter season may also bring a peak in influenza cases, which may lead worried people to rush to their doctors and demand to be tested for the virus.

The ECDC told Euronews in an email that entry screening is not considered to be an effective measure for detecting incoming travellers with infectious diseases but that "a targeted approach focussing on passengers from direct incoming flights may be considered".

London, Paris and Rome are the only three EU airports providing direct flights to Wuhan, the central Chinese city seen as the outbreak's epicentre.
Such entry screenings are to be conducted in Australia and the US. Japan and South Korea have also increased airport screenings.
In China, face masks are selling out fast while temperature checks are being conducted at airports.

To prevent the spread of coronavirus beyond Asia, WHO recommends that people travelling to China for the upcoming festivities avoid close contact with people suffering from acute respiratory infections as well as with live or dead farm or wild animals. It also advises frequent hand-washing.

Screening might be "futile"
But despite the rollout of screening technology, one Helskinki-based expert said it might not help prevent the spread of the virus.
"I'm very surprised that so many countries have gone through this. The WHO is very clear in their recommendations is that this is not very helpful. It's actually impossible to catch everyone in a connected society," said Mika Salminen, Director at the Department for Health Security at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare.
"This is more show than effect. It's probably futile," he said.

[TheOldNorth]

lets hope the strongest and smartest frenchmen survive, and may Gaul of old rise again from the ashes (if the disease continues to spread)

[The Lawspeaker]

EU ‘well prepared’ to deal with coronavirus, says health expert

EURACTIV spoke with health expert Profesor Herman Goossens about the potential spread of coronavirus in Europe, who said that he would not be “at all surprised” if the virus had already reached Europe but emphasised that, thanks to a rapid and timely response in the EU, we are “well prepared” to deal with the virus.

Following the recent outbreak of the novel coronavirus in China, which has now infected more than 600 people and claimed the lives of 18, health authorities around the world are mobilising to try to contain the spread of the disease.

There are signs that the virus, which originates from the Chinese city of Wuhan, is on the move, with reported cases in at least five other countries, including four patients currently being tested for the virus in Scotland.

Although the exact extent of the outbreak remains to be established, these events have triggered an assessment of the level of preparedness of clinical research networks in Europe for possible deployment in case of further spread.

Asked for a comment on the situation on Wednesday (22 January), the European Commission responded that they are following this extremely closely and are in the process of coordinating all measures that may be necessary at the EU level.

The Commission spokesperson added that Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides has been in contact with the head of the directorate-general for health, as well as health ministers in France and Italy, given that both countries have airports with a direct connection with Wuhan.

They added that the Commission is “ready to take any actions as necessary.”

These comments come after the EU centre for disease and prevention control did a risk assessment and decided to increase the status of the risk of the virus entering the EU from ‘low’ to ‘moderate’, based on the news that Chinese health authorities identified human to human transmission of the disease.

On Thursday (24 January), the World Health Organisation (WHO) decided not to declare the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak a global emergency, although it said that the members of the emergency committee are ready to reconvene in approximately ten days’ time to reconsider the decision, or earlier should the director-general deem it necessary.

The European Commission has invested in the development of European clinical networks over many years to ensure preparedness for delivering clinical research in response to new infectious disease outbreaks.

One of these networks is the Platform for European Preparedness Against Emerging Epidemics (PREPARE), an EU-funded project that aims to establish a European clinical research network covering primary care and hospital care in all EU member states.

Professor Goossens, coordinator of PREPARE, told EURACTIV that we have “been very active, preparing ourselves and doing clinical studies to see what is the best way of how we treat our patients.”

Goossens added that there has been very active support from the European communities, “for training in hospitals, for research in our labs” and we could “mobilise very quickly” against the outbreak.

He said that acting fast is crucial and that the medical community has learned from past pandemics that taking proactive action is the most important way to manage disease outbreaks.
He added that this is particularly important given that there are currently no vaccines for this virus.

However, thanks to the first genetic sequence of this strain of coronavirus, which was shared on 12 January, there has since been a rapid development of diagnostic kits, instrumental for adequate outbreak preparedness and response.

Dr Goossen said there are a number of treatment options currently being studied in China which he hopes will yield results “very soon”.
In the meantime, he confirmed that the EU is currently considering the option of screening people coming from China into the EU, something he thinks will start very quickly.
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]