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Sri Lanka faces China viral pneumonia infections risk
A potentially dangerous viral pneumonia has infected dozens in the Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei province and could spread internationally, including in Sri Lanka, which is ill prepared for public health emergencies and is vulnerable.
Hundreds of thousands of Chinese arrive in Colombo every year, drawn by the ease of entry.
A Hong Kong microbiologist suspects the Wuhan viral pneumonia is spreading from person to person in China. Chinese health authorities had said earlier there was no transmission between humans.
The Bandaranaike International Airport was unaware of the national security and public health dangers this unknown viral pneumonia from China poses, until the Sunday Times called today at about 11:35am Colombo time to ask whether airport officials were aware of the disease, if there are contingency plans, and if any Chinese passengers from China and Hong Kong, in particular, are being screened with thermal scanners, or other means.
The Airport Duty Manager, Vishwa Atalugama, pledged to inform the national health authorities, airport health office, and executives including, Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Chairman, G.A. Chandrasiri.A microbiologist who also researches infectious diseases, Dr Ho Pak-leung, of the University of Hong Kong, told government broadcaster, RTHK, on Saturday, that it was likely the disease is spreading from human to human.
He recommended the use of every monitoring tool possible. Dr Ho heads the university’s Centre for Infection.
There are fears the disease could be similar to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, (SARS), that spread rapidly from China to Hong Kong and 37 countries killing 774 people. and infecting 8,000. It originated from a Chinese man who had killed and eaten a civet cat.
On a few occasions during the SARS epidemic, there was panic in Sri Lanka at the airport and at hospitals.
The SARS virus brought Hong Kong to its knees in 2003 and killed 299 including pregnant women, doctors and health care workers. It infected 1,755. SARS mostly infected the Chinese population of Hong Kong.
Now, public health authorities in Hong Kong are advising not just temperature screenings, but also surveillance, cleaning as well as protection and control of the Wuhan pneumonia. Public and private doctors are being alerted to Chinese visitors and others presenting with fever, or symptoms of respiratory infections.
In addition to Hong Kong International Airport, more staff have been sent to the West Kowloon Station of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Railway to check inbound travellers from Wuhan.
Hong Kong has warned that the disease from China, “has the potential to lead to international spread and [cause a] public health emergency’’.
Singapore began screening passengers from Wuhan at Changi Airport on Friday.
Taiwan started screening Chinese passengers. The Centers for Disease Control under the Ministry of Health and Welfare said officials will board flights to check before passengers from Wuhan are allowed to disembark.
Singapore’s Ministry of Health said on Facebook that “suspect cases with fever and acute respiratory illness or pneumonia and with travel history to Wuhan within 14 days before onset of symptoms will be isolated as a precautionary measure to prevent transmission’’.
Hong Kong, which lies just hours away from Wuhan, raised the response level Saturday morning to ‘serious’, one level below ‘emergency’, after reports of infections of an unknown viral pneumonia in the Chinese city of Wuhan soared to 44 patients as of Friday evening from 27 on Tuesday. And 11 patients are in a serious condition.
They have all been isolated, while 121 close contacts are being monitored.
At the ‘serious level’ response in Hong Kong, even the Secretary for Security is involved, along with officials in charge of transport, food and heath, food safety, housing, tourism, education, welfare, water supplies, food safety, hospitals, government information services, commerce and economic, home affairs, highways, and environment officials.
Those arriving in Hong Kong are being checked at all border control points.
Hong Kong’s Department of Health announced Saturday that “the serious response level was activated.’’
China has not been forthcoming by making more information public early and people in Hong Kong, fearful of a SARS outbreak as in 2003, which originated in China, have been rushing to pharmacies to buy face masks and disinfectant. Some pharmacies had run out of stocks last evening. The Chinese state TV network’s overseas arm, CGTN, in one bulletin reported the news in 47 seconds in English.
Fifteen years ago, when the SARS epidemic raged, the World Health Organisation deplored China for under-reporting infections in southern Guangdong province.
On Friday, in Hong Kong, some widely-read mainstream Chinese dailies splashed the Wuhan pneumonia virus news across full pages on the front.
There were seven suspected cases in Hong Kong and four have been discharged.
Hong Kong’s Secretary for Health, Sophia Chan Siu-chee, told a radio programme, Saturday: “In launching ‘preparedness and response plan for novel infectious disease of public health significance,’ we have actually put it to the Serious Response Level.’’
A ‘novel infectious disease of public health significance’ is any infectious disease caused by a pathogen unknown to cause human disease before, but may have changed its property to cause human infection with or without the ability of efficient human-to-human transmission, Hong Kong health authorities explained.
Public hospitals have admitted two women who have been to Wuhan in the past 14 days and presented with fever and respiratory infections, or pneumonia symptoms. The patients, aged 12 and 41 years are in isolation. They are stable.
China’s National Health Commission has advised Hong Kong that a number of viral pneumonia cases with unknown cause have been identified since December through medical surveillance. Symptoms were mainly fever while a few had presented with shortness of breath. As at 8:00 am today [Friday], 44 cases have been reported. Among them, 11 cases were in serious condition and the remaining were stable. All patients are receiving treatment in isolation. Also 121 close contacts are under medical surveillance, contact tracing of close contacts is still ongoing, the commission announced.
The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission has said it does not know the origin of the disease.
Suspicions are centred on a wet market in Wuhan where wild animals including snakes and the organs of rabbits and other wildlife, are sold. It has now been shut. Some viral pneumonia patients were vendors in the market. Chinese are known to enjoy snake soup in the winter.
Wuhan health officials have reported they suspect a viral pneumonia, but that tests show it is not common flu, avian flu, or the adenovirus.
According to the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota in the United States, “experts in and outside of China have raised the possibility that a new type of coronavirus may be the culprit’’.
“Coronaviruses can trigger a wide range of respiratory symptoms with some types causing mild cold symptoms, with others such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus or Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, known to cause severe or fatal infections,’’ the centre says.
The centre in a report, cites director, Dr Michael T. Osterholm, as saying that apart from identifying the unknown pathogen, another piece of the puzzle is the case definition Wuhan officials are using to identify patients that are part of the cluster. “This key fact add substantial meaning and context to the case numbers they’re reporting,” he is cited as saying.
For example, it is not clear if health officials are excluding sick people who were not exposed to the seafood market. Dr Osterholm said that if they are, the concern is that they could be missing cases outside of the market setting, some of which might reflect human-to-human spread. Presumably, some of the contacts under monitoring are health care workers, he added, the centre reported.
The magazine Science, cites Guan Yi of the University of Hong Kong, an expert in emerging viral diseases, as saying that China’s authorities should “work to dig out the zoonotic source’’, referring to suspicions that a a zoonotic pathogen may have jumped to humans at the Wuhan market. He also says he does not think this disease is SARS.
Radio Free Asia quoted an online activist Zhang Ruigen as saying that there are concerns that the ruling Chinese Communist Party may seek to cover up the seriousness of the outbreak, as in 2003 during the SARS outbreak.
“I think the Wuhan government is cracking down on information,” Zhang said. “They are trying to do a news blackout, and they are calling the truth rumors and fake news the truth.
“When SARS broke out in 2003, the government also blocked the news and said it was rumors, and then said it couldn’t be covered at all. This is still the same routine: they are calling it ‘pneumonia of unknown cause.’
“The first thing they think about is how not to reveal the truth. The first thing they do is detain people and censor public speech.’’
Authorities in Hubei province have arrested several people for sharing fake news online about the virus, news reports said.