Divine retribution 天灭中共

A Mysterious Virus in Central China Has Infected Dozens, Raising Fears of a New Epidemic. Here's What to Know
By Hillary Leung / Hong Kong,
An unidentified form of pneumonia has broken out in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, prompting authorities to quarantine those infected and raise hospital alerts.
Wuhan’s health bureau announced Sunday that close to 60 patients have been diagnosed with the virus, and neighboring Hong Kong has announced suspected cases. (A suspected case in Singapore turned out to be a false alarm.)
The mysterious strain has been linked to a seafood market which has been closed for sanitation since Jan. 1.
Medical experts are attempting to identify the illness.
While they say it is unlikely that this new strain of pneumonia could cause a repeat of 2003’s deadly SARS outbreak in 2003, which killed hundreds in mainland China and spread as far as the U.S. and Canada, they stress that vigilance should not be relaxed.
Here’s what to know about the virus.

How serious is the pneumonia outbreak?
According to Wuhan’s health bureau, 59 patients have been diagnosed with the virus, including seven in critical condition as of Sunday.
Some of the patients operated stalls at the seafood market.
All of the patients are in quarantine, and 163 people who had been in close contact with them have been placed under medical observation.
The World Health Organization says symptoms include fever and difficulty breathing.

How fast is it spreading?
The first case was discovered in Wuhan on Dec. 12, the city’s health bureau says.
On Sunday, authorities in Hong Kong reported that nine more patients were found to have fever or respiratory symptoms after returning from Wuhan, bringing the number of cases in the city to 17.

How are authorities outside China responding?
Governments are stepping up precautionary measures in the wake of the outbreak.
Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority has imposed shorter visiting hours at hospitals and is requiring all visitors to wear face masks.
The city has also enhanced the airport’s thermal imaging system to screen the temperatures of travelers coming from Wuhan.
Additional manpower has been assigned to the train station that connects the city to mainland China to carry out temperature checks.
Singapore’s Ministry of Health announced Thursday that it is implementing temperature screenings for travelers arriving on flights from Wuhan.
Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control has asked doctors and airport quarantine officials to notify the bureau of patients who have traveled to Wuhan and exhibit any symptoms.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says it is monitoring the situation and “in close contact with national authorities in China.”

Could this evolve into a large-scale outbreak like SARS?
Wuhan’s health bureau said that the viral pneumonia is not SARS, MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) or bird flu.
It also said there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission, but medical experts have expressed their reservations.
“They did not exclude this possibility completely,” Leo Poon, a virologist and SARS expert at the University of Hong Kong, tells TIME.
Still, the fact that there have not been any deaths so far — 10% of those who contracted SARS in 2003 died — is reason to believe that the outbreak will not take a more serious turn, Poon adds.
Yuen Kwok-yung, a microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong, says there have been marked advances in scientific research and laboratory diagnostic capabilities since the SARS outbreak over a decade ago.
“It is highly unlikely that this will lead to a major 2003-like epidemic,” Yuen says, “though we cannot be complacent.”

Divine Retribution

Plagues of China
Two cases of the fatal and highly infectious illness, which is related to bubonic plague, were found in Beijing

By Sui-Lee Wee

BEIJING — Two people in China were diagnosed with plague, setting off a panic on Tuesday about the potential spread of the highly infectious and fatal disease and prompting China’s government to warn citizens to take precautions to protect themselves.
Beijing officials said the two infected people came from Inner Mongolia, a sparsely populated region of northern China. 

They sought treatment on Tuesday in a hospital in Beijing’s Chaoyang District, where they were diagnosed with pneumonic plague, according to the government office of the district.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on Weibo, the microblogging site, that there was no need for Beijing residents to panic and that the risks of further transmission are “extremely low.” 

The authorities quickly isolated the patients, conducted epidemiological investigations on the people who could have been exposed and disinfected all the relevant sites, the CDC said. 

They have also strengthened monitoring of patients with fever, it added.
Pneumonic plague is one of three types of infectious disease known as plague caused by the same bacterium, Yersinia pestis. 

Patients diagnosed with pneumonic plague, which causes high fevers and shortness of breath, sometimes first contract the closely related and more well-known disease, bubonic plague.
Fears are mounting in China over a possible outbreak of the disease, once known as the Black Death, which killed tens of millions of people in medieval Europe, and spread through Asia and Africa.
Last month, the authorities in China said they would strengthen quarantine measures to prevent plague from entering the country after Madagascar was struck by a fast-spreading outbreak of the disease. 

It is unclear when the cases were first detected in China but residents are asking why the authorities took so long to diagnose and disclose the problem.
Li Jifeng, a doctor at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital where the two people sought treatment, wrote on WeChat, a social media platform, that the patients sought treatment on Nov. 3. 

That post, which has since been deleted, was published by CN-Healthcare, a website that covers health care news in China. 

Li could not be reached for comment and Beijing Chaoyang Hospital declined to comment.
Li wrote that the patient she saw was a middle-aged man, who had a fever and complained of breathing difficulties for 10 days. 

He sought treatment at a hospital in Inner Mongolia but his condition did not improve. 

His wife also developed a fever and respiratory problems.
“After so many years of specialist training, I’m familiar with the diagnosis and treatment of most respiratory diseases,” wrote Dr. Li. 

“But this time, I looked and looked at it. I couldn’t guess what pathogen caused this pneumonia. I only knew it was rare.”

On why the authorities took so long to make the announcement, Li wrote that signs of any infectious disease need to be repeatedly verified and investigated, and such announcements cannot be “transmitted casually.”
The police quarantined the emergency room in the Chaoyang Hospital on Monday night, the news outlet Caixin reported, citing residents.
On Tuesday, Chinese censors instructed online news aggregators in China to “block and control” online discussion related to news about the plague, according to a directive seen by The New York Times.
Skeptical Chinese internet users have charged the government with being slow to disclose news about the disease, which is transmitted between humans and kills even faster than the more-common bubonic form. 

China has a history of covering up and being slow to announce infectious outbreaks, prompting many people to call for transparency this time.“The plague is not the most terrifying part,” one user wrote on Weibo. 

“What’s even scarier is the information not being made public.”
If left untreated, pneumonic plague is always fatal, according to the World Health Organization. 

But recovery rates are high if detected and treated with antibiotics, within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms, the agency said.
Another user on Weibo called on the government to disclose how the patients arrived in Beijing from Inner Mongolia. 

If the patients traveled on their own using public transportation they could have spread the disease to many people.
“How many people have they encountered potentially?” the user wrote.

“Only 2 kilometers away from Chaoyang Hospital. I’m shaking and trembling.”
According to China’s health commission, six people have died in the country from the plague since 2014. 

The most recent case was recorded earlier this year.
Officials have warned people to avoid traveling to infected areas and contact with rodents.