Asymptomatic patient spreads the virus in China

There are growing concerns over China’s Wuhan pneumonia, which has shown signs of group transmission and third infection, with many becoming fearful that the epidemic is going out of control.

According to the Sanitary Health Commission of Anyang City, Hunan province on Wednesday, the father (age 45) and two aunts of Mr. Liu, who had visited Wuhan before returning to his home in Anyang, were infected with the virus, which is secondary infection. The virus also spread to Mr. Liu's mother (aged 42) and another aunt, third infection. Though Liu was confirmed of the virus, there had been no symptoms after the latent period (up to 14 days), which implies the virus' potential of group transmission via no symptom patients. In Hefei City of Anhui province, six people in their 20s were infected after attending a gathering, confirmed of the virus on Tuesday. A family of six in Huangshan City, Anhui province were also found infected.

The number of accumulated confirmed cases in mainland China as of Tuesday reached 6018, outnumbering the cases in 2003 during the outbreak of the SAAS virus. The death toll recorded 132, which is 26 higher from the previous day. A case was first confirmed in the Middle East for the first time in the Arab Emirates.

Christian Lindmeier, spokesperson of the World Health Organization, said on Tuesday (local time) that the WHO cannot conclude the level of symptoms, which allows the infectee to spread the virus," hinting the chance of asymptomatic infections. However, Park Hye-Kyung, the head of the Central Headquarters for Emergency Operations at the Korean Center of Disease Control, objected to this statement, saying, "There is no such wording on the WHO document and asymptomatic infections are groundless." No further confirmed case was reported in Korea on Wednesday.


Wan-Jun Yun zeitung@donga.com · Joo-Young Jeon aimhigh@donga.com