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World must act fast to contain coronavirus: WHO's Tedros


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World must act fast to contain coronavirus: WHO's Tedros

By Stephanie Nebehay and Kate Kelland

 

2020-02-21T195616Z_5_LYNXMPEG1K1HY_RTROPTP_4_CHINA-HEALTH-WHO.JPG

FILE PHOTO: Director-General of the WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, attends a news conference on the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Geneva, Switzerland February 11, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

 

GENEVA/LONDON (Reuters) - The window of opportunity to contain wider international spread of the epidemic of the new coronavirus disease is closing, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Friday, after cases were reported in Iran and Lebanon.

 

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, asked whether the outbreak is at a "tipping point" after new cases and deaths in Iran from COVID-19, and cases in Lebanon and Canada, said that he still believed the virus spread could be stopped.

 

"Although the window of opportunity is narrowing to contain the outbreak, we still have a chance to contain it," he said.

"If we don't, if we squander the opportunity, then there will be a serious problem on our hands," he said.

 

China has reported more than 75,500 cases and 2,239 deaths, Tedros said. He voiced concern about an increase in infections in the northern province of Shandong - where more than 200 cases were announced earlier in prisons - and said it was seeking more information.

 

Twenty-six other countries have reported 1,151 cases and eight deaths.

 

"Although the total number of cases outside China remains relatively small, we are concerned about the number of cases with no clear epidemiological link, such as travel history to China or contact with a confirmed case," he said.

 

He said it was "very concerning" that Iran had reported 18 cases and four deaths in just the past two days, adding that the WHO was supplying testing kits to Tehran.

 

Tedros, asked whether sanctions imposed on Iran for its nuclear program might hamper delivery of medical aid, said:

"Emergency situations are excluded."

 

Lebanon confirmed its first coronavirus case on Friday and said it was monitoring two other potential cases after a 45-year-old woman arriving from the holy city of Qom in Iran on Thursday tested positive, Health Minister Hamad Hassan said.

 

Dr. Sylvie Briand, director of WHO global infectious hazard preparedness, referring to Iran, said: "The concern is more about the fact that we seen an increase in cases, a very rapid increase in a matter of a few days...What is the extent of this outbreak and the transmission in Iran?

 

"Also because we have seen other cases picked up in Lebanon and Canada, so we are just wondering also about the potential of more exported cases in the coming days."

 

There are different patterns of transmission in different places, Briand said, adding: "We have lots of diversity, different outbreaks showing different phases."

 

Tedros said that a WHO-led team of international experts and their Chinese counterparts would visit Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic, on Saturday. The full team, which arrived in China last weekend, includes experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

 

(Reporting by Kate Kelland in London and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, editing by Nick Macfie and Cynthia Osterman)

 

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-02-22
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Without any desire to go into the realms of conspiracy theories it strikes me as remarkably strange that now random infections are occurring as in "There are different patterns of transmission in different places, Briand said, adding: "We have lots of diversity, different outbreaks showing different phases." ".

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7 hours ago, smedly said:

How did it get to Iran ?

 

Do Iranians holiday in China ?

search and read from Internet; there are quite some Chinese workers to help the Iranians with nuclear and Revolutional Guard installations.

It also might have lifted with Shia pelgrims to Qom from other nations, where scrutiny on health is by far not so thorough as in China.

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3 hours ago, Assurancetourix said:

Except in Thailand where everything is under control at 100% ...

I don't say that , it's khun Prayuth who said 

Not the first time, see the bird flue a 20 years ago in Thailand. Profits of ventures with capital in from the ruling elite of Thailand prevail above all..

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Years ago it was the WHO who cautioned that a mysterious "disease X" could spark an international contagion. nCoV2019, stealth and able to easily morph from mild to deadly, is emerging as a contender. Its recent progress in South Korea, Iran, and now Italy make it even more so. 

 

"Whether it will be contained or not, this outbreak is rapidly becoming the first true pandemic challenge that fits the disease X category," Dr Marion Koopmans, head of viroscience at Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam, and a member of the WHO's emergency committee, wrote on Wednesday (Feb 19) in the journal Cell.   Straights Times

 

From history:

 

I had a little bird,

and its name was Enza,

I opened the window,

And in-flu-enza.


Children's jump rope rhyme heard nationwide during the height of the 1918 pandemic.

http://www.stanford.edu/group/virus/uda/

Edited by rabas
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32 minutes ago, URMySunshine said:

Dean R Koontz wrote the story in 1981.  The virus was called Wuhan-400.  He named the exact city in which it starts. Hopefully the Simpsons link will be found pretty soon. 

 

https://www.indiatoday.in/trending-news/story/-novel-predicted-wuhan-virus-40-years-before-coronavirus-outbreak-internet-is-stumped-1647261-2020-02-17?fbclid=IwAR2ndvNUZEpsSggeJDzwmz9F9sCVXQWOwucHWOzTBYQ3KYXJgVx-wKt8j_0

 

A novel predicted Wuhan virus 40 years before Coronavirus outbreak

Tell me there will not be some blockbuster movies coming out of this current outbreak in the next year or so.  I'm sure scripts are already flying all around Hollywood right now.

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7 hours ago, JHolmesJr said:

Noteworthy to see how fast this thing exploded in S Korea.

Nothing for weeks and suddenly 350-ish.

 

Iran....with its poor healthcare system another hotspot.

 

China's prison.

 

Time to rethink globalism

Most of these in a sekt which recently opened a church in Wuhan.

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20 minutes ago, WaveHunter said:

Tell me there will not be some blockbuster movies coming out of this current outbreak in the next year or so.  I'm sure scripts are already flying all around Hollywood right now.

Undoubtedly this will be the biggest story of 2020 if not all our lives sadly.

 

The 2011 movie Contagion is brilliant in every respect if somewhat chilling given current circumstances. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contagion_(2011_film)

 

 

 

 

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3 minutes ago, 3NUMBAS said:

Coronavirus: asymptomatic Wuhan woman shows why outbreak 'will be hard to stop'

 

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/coronavirus-asymptomatic-wuhan-woman-shows-102000328.html

It's as if this virus was bio-engineered to be as evil as possible. Not that viruses are evil they just are the most simple and primitive form of life as we know it. Simple genetic instructions to take over an advanced nucleus and replicate enlessy with no regard for the host  that remind us of where we come from,  a soup of cooling chemicals.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenesis

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