Coronavirus COVID-19 *Global Health Emergency* #13

Welcome to Websleuths!
Click to learn how to make a missing person's thread

DNA Solves
DNA Solves
DNA Solves

New Posts

Status
Not open for further replies.
Gene sequencing at Beijing hospital found coronavirus in the cerebrospinal fluid of a 56-year-old confirmed COVID-19 patient with encephalitis. 1st case of #Covid19 causing encephalitis. Beijing Ditan Hospital warns novel coronavirus could attack central nervous system

COVID-19 patients could also see complications related to severe respiratory distress syndrome, myocardial damage, kidney injury and other organ damage. COVID-19 patients who have shown nervous disorders were relatively rare compared with respiratory and cardiac complications.
Joël Mossong on Twitter
 
Henry2326 said:
Gene sequencing at Beijing hospital found coronavirus in the cerebrospinal fluid of a 56-year-old confirmed COVID-19 patient with encephalitis. 1st case of #Covid19 causing encephalitis. Beijing Ditan Hospital warns novel coronavirus could attack central nervous system

COVID-19 patients could also see complications related to severe respiratory distress syndrome, myocardial damage, kidney injury and other organ damage. COVID-19 patients who have shown nervous disorders were relatively rare compared with respiratory and cardiac complications.
Joël Mossong on Twitter
Click to expand...

Note that the patient fully recovered, that it was ONE individual, that the link between the virus and encephalitis is not stated as a fact and that the source is Chinese tv.
 
firebird said:
Thanks. I don't feel any worse and maybe a little better. But I don't have a fever at all, and the doc said my lungs sounded clear on Monday. So I'm doubting I have a serious health issue here. On the other hand, a smoker in my office was told he likely has pnuemonia even though he otherwise has the exact same symptoms/lack of symptoms as me. Just a dryish intermittent cough, high blood pressure and pulse (likely from being ill), shortness of breath (his is worse than mine, but he smokes...so), but no fever or joint pain or anything else flu'ish. Other co-workers also have the annoying cough, but I'm not personallhy close enough to them to quiz them about it :) Plus, as I mentioned, another close colleague and his wife both had contagious pnuemonia within the past 6 weeks. Idk what's going on, but it surely seems "coincidental" for a very small office. Otoh, I've had the actual flu at least once and this is NOTHING like that experience. As I recall I had a raging fever and joint pain and basically slept on the floor for a couple of days, straight. So if this is the corona virus, most of us can relax and just stay away from the susceptible as much as possible. I haven't even had trouble sleeping.
Click to expand...
It's been a tough winter with colds, flus, other respiratory viruses and now covid-19. Only 3 or 4 weeks ago, even in our rural area, it was hard to find a couple of particular cold meds I wanted for myself, and that was before people were becoming more attuned to this current situation.

As others have said, I do worry about our healthcare system and workers being over-taxed in at least some areas of the country. I think that's my biggest concern at the moment.
 
firebird said:
Note that the patient fully recovered, that it was ONE individual, that the link between the virus and encephalitis is not stated as a fact and that the source is Chinese tv.
Click to expand...
Absolutely....no one implied that it crossed the full population. The Chinese researchers and scientists are some of the most brilliant people in the world. I wouldn't infer their government on this brilliant group....
 
MimosaMornings said:
I’ve got a wide range of reactions from my group of friends - from totally head in sand to full on prepping. One is discussing their upcoming trip out of the country while the other is telling me that domestic travel will shut down in a few weeks.
Is that a real possibility?
Click to expand...
I would like to see this happen. Seems one way to somewhat contain the spread.
 
Henry2326 said:
Absolutely....no one implied that it crossed the full population. The Chinese researchers and scientists are some of the most brilliant people in the world. I wouldn't infer their government on this brilliant group....
Click to expand...

Actually, the headline in your post says that Covid CAUSED the encephalitis. Which doesn't seem to be borne out in the text. Also, when equating a particular virus with a dire medical outcome like encephalitis, I think it's important to provide context -- which is what I was trying to do. jmo
 
Pics at link...

They call it the “Blue Great Wall.”

The cobalt-hued metal sheets sprang up just weeks ago across Tianjin, a port city of over 15 million people in northeastern China. They crisscrossed streets and alleyways. They cut off businesses from their customers. They separated neighbor from neighbor.

“From this day forward,” read the signs affixed to many of them, “this residential community will be managed in a closed-off way.”

Barriers of all kinds have sprung up across China. The country is battling the outbreak of a disease called Covid-19, which has killed more than 3,000 people and sickened tens of thousands more. It is caused by a new coronavirus, so named for the spiky protrusions that cover its microscopic surface.

To stop the coronavirus from spreading further, the Chinese government is thinking up new ways to separate its people. Traveling between many of its cities has ground to a virtual halt, freezing large swaths of the world’s second-largest economy.

A ‘Blue Great Wall’ Divides a City as It Battles the Coronavirus
 
Not sure about any of you guys, but it seems that I’m a hypochondriac from hell.

I keep feeling my forehead, face and neck for a fever (with very clean hands of course :D ).

:drama:

I didn’t buy a thermometer and now I’m thinking I should get one, if anything to quell my own anxiety LOL.


(ETA: @dixiegirl1035, you were talking the other day about missing all the old emojis here...I miss that “drama” emoji LOL.

You know what other old emoji I really miss? “ :lookingitup: “...that was the cute guy with glasses behind the desk typing, iirc. He might have even had coffee lol.)
 
Last edited:
FYI for folks in South Korea. The govt will adopt a new system for purchasing face masks starting Friday.
If your birth year ends w/:
1 or 6 - You can buy masks on Monday
2 or 7 - Tuesday
3 or 8 - Wednesday
4 or 9 - Thursday
5 or 0 - Friday
Pharmacies are *suppose* to check ID
Joseph Kim on Twitter
 
China’s Battle Against Coronavirus: 7 Takeaways

In an extensive interview with The New York Times, Dr. Bruce Aylward, of the World Health Organization, described what he learned from close observation of China’s efforts to contain the coronavirus. Here are seven important lesson.

Aggressive measures work.
New cases have dropped to 200 a day from over 3,000 a day one month ago. After the initial chaos and cover-up in Wuhan, health authorities imposed a lockdown, strict quarantines, mandatory testing and isolation. That prevented what would have been hundreds of thousands of infections.

There aren’t many asymptomatic cases.
Testing of 320,000 samples suggests that the known cases are not just the tip of an iceberg. “What we’re seeing is a pyramid: Most of it is above ground,” Dr. Aylward said.

Be prepared to move medical care online …
To keep the sick and the healthy from mingling in clinics and emergency rooms, online medical consultations and prescriptions became the norm. Two hospitals were erected almost overnight, and open wards in others were rebuilt as isolation units.

… as well as other services.
Students from schools that closed got online lessons. Medications and food parcels were delivered to millions of people who were shut in their homes for a month.

Isolate the infected quickly.
In designated “fever clinics,” medical personnel in protective gear took temperatures, did rapid lung CT scans and gave swab tests that produced results in hours. To protect families, the infected were taken to isolation centers; the seriously ill and elderly went to hospitals.

Having to pay may slow containment.
Testing was free in China, as was all care for hospitalized patients. If Americans delay getting tested for fear of the medical bills “that’s what could wreak havoc,” Dr. Aylward said. “The U.S. has to think this through.”

Civic spirit can make a difference.
More than 40,000 doctors and nurses, many of them volunteers, descended on Wuhan. Highway workers became temperature-takers or delivered food. Hospital receptionists took charge of infection control.

Volunteers, Dr. Aylward said, “really saw themselves as on the front lines of protecting the rest of China. And the world.”

China’s Battle Against Coronavirus: 7 Takeaways
 
Public health physician Dr Nicola Spurrier said the baby in Adelaide is the daughter of a 40-year-old woman hospitalised in the Flinders Medical Centre with the virus. The woman arrived in Adelaide from Iran via Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.

“The little bub, the child of the mother that is currently in Flinders Medical Centre, has tested positive but I am very pleased to report that the child is well and both mother and baby are doing well in that facility,” Spurrier said.

Coronavirus: baby girl in Adelaide tests positive as Australian cases rise to 53 | Coronavirus outbreak | The Guardian
 
Here is more from Dr. Nancy re: “test kits” specifically, posting as I read, marking for reference, (continuation from the below quoted post, which I’ve run out of editing time on). Again, this is from Tuesday’s CDC telebriefing.

“Hey, thanks so much for letting me ask a question. I wanted to clarify on the testing, so I know there’s been numbers going around saying by the end of the week to be a million tests a day. Is that exclusively based on the tests that CDC is sending out or is that accounting for the other tests that FDA is approving. Similarly, can you clarify what the CDC will be posting now on in terms of case counts. Thanks.

Messonnier: Yeah. So thanks. The number that you’re quoting is the number that the FDA commissioner has quoted as the commercially available kits. So if there are questions about that i would definitely refer those to the FDA. The CDC number is test kits that are going to public health labs. And we expect that by the end of this week the public health labs will be able to test up to 75,000 people. As you say, that will be a small part of the overall testing that will be available. That’s why when I started my comments, I talked about the complications with expecting CDC’s case count to be up to date. It’s a good thing that these tests are going to be widely available, but it also means that CDC will not always be up to the minute in terms of the latest number of cases, especially out of state local health departments. So that’s why we say we really do need you to look to the states to those updated numbers. CDC’s numbers may be a little more delayed because there are so much testing kits going out.”

Source / Qmfr / tagging “test kits”, “testing kits”, “CDC”, “FDA”:
margarita25 said:
I already just (re)-posted above the full CDC telebriefing from Tuesday, but wanted to bring this section forward specifically re: “test kits” for both reference and clarity going forward, as it’s obviously a very important aspect of all of this; (sorry for any rehash, I’m still catching up as usual):


“Our next question comes from Craig Figner with CBS Los Angeles. Your line is open.

Thank you. Dr. Messonnier, a couple of questions. Here in California, do we have new information on testing kits, exactly how many have been shipped, will be shipped, when they will arrive? And also, if you can give, are you able to speak freely? Is anybody in the White House telling you to tamp down anything that you otherwise would like to say?

Messonnier: Yeah. So the answer to the first question about California’s test kits is i really have to refer you to the state of California. What i can say is over the weekend we shipped additional test kits to California. And i understand from the FDA commissioner that by the end of the week they expect many more test kits to be available through other pathways besides CDC, which i know is great news for the clinicians out there. In terms of my telebriefings, as many of you know, i have been doing these telebriefings regularly since the start of the outbreak. I think we at CDC have been very open and able to answer lots of different questions, including those posed on these conferences. Thank you.

Next question, please.

Our next question comes from Rebekah Lindstrom from 11 Alive. Your line is open.

Thank you. So, i’m trying to understand exactly how this process is going to be changing now that manufacturers are allowed to produce these test kits independently. So, if I understand it correctly, the test kits were sent out to various states, to the public health department and then they were sending it back to the CDC for verification of the results. Talk to me a little bit about now how that process is going to be working.

Messonnier: Sure. Thanks for the opportunity to really clarify CDC’s role. CDC’s role in this space is in getting a diagnostic quickly and correctly and then working with our public health laboratory partners and state and local health departments to make sure that the public health labs have early access to diagnostic capacity. As part of that process, CDC has sent test kits out to states and those test kits are being used right now by many state health departments because of the FDA regulations, those are still considered presumptive positive until those are confirmed test at CDC, but those are actionable results that is state and local health departments are using those to make public health decisions. That part is CDC’s role. In order to get diagnostics to the front lines, that is, in the clinician’s hand at the bedside in the hospital, that’s really not the CDC public health test kit. That’s the availability of test kits from commercial test manufacturers which is something that is overseen by FDA. Again, based on the comments of the FDA commissioner over the weekend, I guess, last week, they are moving quickly to get those test kits out to commercial test manufacturers. That means it will be a tool in the toolbox of clinicians in clinics and in hospitals that they can use based on clinical suspicion to test their patients. That’s why it’s really important that clinicians look at the CDC guidance on our website, join our webinar so they can hear from us what information they need and also for clinicians to be in close touch with their own health departments so they can understand the local situation and how that might impact how they perceive and treat patients. Next question.

Next question.

To make sure I’m understanding real quick, you’re saying that those tests then that might be in the clinics or at the bedside, would still be presumptive positive and then tests would still go back to the CDC for confirmation?

Messonier: Thanks for letting me clarify. No, those kits — those test kits that are commercially manufactured are overseen by FDA, and they won’t have that same public health confirmatory process I was just talking about.”
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.

DNASolves

Who is Fairfield County Jane Doe (1993)?

Members online

... and 174 more.
Total: 1,816 (members: 175, guests: 1,641)

Online statistics

Members online
175
Guests online
1,641
Total visitors
1,816
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
606,471
Messages
18,204,337
Members
233,856
Latest member
LCleveland
Back
Top