SARS-like virus spreads in China

A SARS-like virus has killed a third person, spread around China and reached another Asian country, authorities said yesterday, fuelling fears of a major outbreak as millions begin travelling for the Lunar New Year in humanity’s biggest migration.

The new coronavirus strain, first discovered in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, has caused alarm because of its connection to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed nearly 650 people across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.

Wuhan has 11 million inhabitants and serves as a major transport hub, including during the annual Lunar New Year holiday which begins later this week and sees hundreds of millions of Chinese people travel across the country to visit family.

Weighing in on the matter for the first time, Chinese President Xi Jinping said yesterday that safeguarding people’s lives should be given “top priority” and that the spread of the epidemic “should be resolutely contained”, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Xi said it was necessary to “release information on the epidemic in a timely manner and deepen international cooperation,” and ensure people have a “stable and peaceful Spring Festival”, the broadcaster said.

The total number of people diagnosed with the virus rose to 218, as Shanghai confirmed its first case yesterday and 136 new cases were found over the weekend in Wuhan, 15 in southern Guangdong province and five in Beijing, according to CCTV. A third person died in Wuhan, the local health commission said.

According to Shanghai’s health commission, its first case -- a 56-year-old woman who was hospitalised last Wednesday -- also came from Wuhan. The patient’s vital signs are stable and two of her close contacts are under medical observation, it said through its official Twitter-like Weibo account.

South Korea yesterday also reported its first case -- a 35-year-old woman who flew in from Wuhan. Thailand and Japan have previously confirmed a total of three cases -- all of whom had visited the Chinese city. No human-to-human transmission has been confirmed so far, but authorities have not ruled out the possibility.

There are also six suspected cases in Shanghai and four provinces and regions in the east, south and southwest of the country. “Experts believe that the current epidemic situation can still be controlled,” the National Health Commission said Sunday.

Detection measures

A seafood market is believed to be the centre of the outbreak in Wuhan, but health officials have reported that some patients had no history of contact with the facility. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Twitter Monday that “an animal source seems the most likely primary source” with “some limited human-to-human transmission occurring between close contacts”.

Scientists with the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College in London warned in a paper published Friday that the number of cases in Wuhan was likely to be closer to 1,700, much higher than the official figure.