Germany - Qatar man sickened by new coronavirus - disclosed a month after hospitalized - recovered

[alert]

Case #5: Germany ex Qatar:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/german-lab-qatar-man-sickened-by-new-virus-of-same-family-that-caused-sars/2012/11/23/622cc0d6-3570-11e2-92f0-496af208bf23_story.html?

German lab: Qatar man sickened by new virus of same family that caused SARS
Associated Press, Nov 23, 2012 01:19 PM EST

AP BERLIN — Germany’s national health institute says a patient from Qatar has been confirmed with a new type of coronavirus but it has shown no signs of being easily transmitted like the related virus that caused the 2003 global SARS outbreak.

The Robert Koch Institute said Friday the patient fell ill in Qatar in October with severe respiratory problems. He was treated in a specialty clinic in Germany for a month and released this week.

Britain’s Health Protection Agency confirmed based on samples that he was sickened by a new coronavirus detected so far only in four other people, from Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

[sharon sanders]

hat tip Michael Coston

RKI: Another Coronavirus Case Treated In Germany



Coronavirus ? Credit CDC PHIL


# 6733

News this morning of another (presumably the 5th) novel coronavirus case out of the Middle East in the past few months, this time a patient from Qatar who has been treated at a specialty clinic in Germany since last month.

You may recall that two days ago we learned of the 4th case (see Saudi Arabian MOH Reports New Coronavirus Case). And earlier this week, we saw additional evidence suggesting that these viruses areLinked To Bats.

The following is a machine translation of a statement (in German) from the Robert Koch Institute.

Fall ill with the novel coronavirus in Germany

The Robert Koch Institute was informed within the international health regulations that another case of disease with the novel coronavirus (HCoV-EMC) has been confirmed in a patient from Qatar.

The patient was treated after symptom onset in October initially treated in the hospital in Qatar, but then postponed because of his severe respiratory symptoms to a specialist chest clinic in Germany. That had taken place after the intensive medical treatment, his condition has improved considerably, so that he could be discharged from the hospital this week.

The case is the fifth case became known disease with the novel coronavirus; previously been another case of Qatar and three cases from Saudi Arabia confirmed. Between the individual cases was no epidemiological link, and they performed at longer intervals.

It is further assumed that sporadic infections of unknown cause in these two countries. There is currently no evidence of human-to-human transmission.

With no evidence of human-to-human transmission, five non-epidemiologically linked cases from two countries in the Middle East over a short period of time raises some intriguing questions.

Not the least of which are:

1. What is the route of transmission to humans?
2. Why are we suddenly seeing multiple cases now?
3. How do we prevent future infections?

With reports of two new cases this week (albeit both from last month), no doubt epidemiologists around the world will increase their efforts to solve this emerging medical mystery.

Posted by Michael Coston <a class="timestamp-link" href="http://afludiary.blogspot.ca/2012/11/taiwan-two-reports-of-h5n2-in-poultry.html" rel="bookmark" title="permanent link"><abbr class="published" title="2012-11-23T09:03:00-05:00"></abbr>

[sharon sanders]

Re: Germany - Qatar man sickened by new coronavirus - disclosed a month after hospitalized

FluTrackers thread on previous new coronavirus cases:

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=192872

[alert]

Re: Germany - Qatar man sickened by new coronavirus - disclosed a month after hospitalized

So onset October 5, transfer to Germany October 24, discharge this week.

http://www.spiegel.de/gesundheit/diagnose/patient-mit-corona-virus-wurde-in-essener-klinik-behandelt-a-869057.html

Essen University Hospital: coronavirus patient treated without special precautions
Veronika Hackenbroch, Cologne

DPA / Health Protection Agency
The new coronavirus under the microscope: Currently six known cases
Tension to the health authorities: A man from Qatar had been infected with the novel coronavirus that causes SARS-like symptoms. Doctors at the University Hospital Essen have treated the patient for four weeks - with no idea of what he suffered a dangerous pathogen.

When the man from Qatar on 24 October in the Ruhrlandklinik, the Lung Center, University of Essen was admitted, he was already sick for 19 days, and the doctors in his country did not go on: his lung tissue was severely damaged by an infection, denied the vital organ. Only one treatment at a specialist clinic in how the food he could not save his life. By plane, he was transferred to Germany.


What the doctors from Qatar German colleagues not said was that they suspected, the patient could have been infected with the new coronavirus.

This virus was first detected in September in another patient from Qatar who was treated in London for acute lung and kidney failure. As it turned out later, was previously in the Netherlands has a Saudi citizen died of this pathogen.

Between the two cases, there was no association. However, the authorities were alerted immediately. For 2003, another coronavirus had spread like wildfire around the world: the causative agent of lung disease SARS. Before he reasons as yet unknown for now disappeared, he had claimed more than 700 victims.

Doctors in Qatar had therefore already one week before their patients to Germany moved, sent a sample body secretions for analysis to London. At the Health Protection Agency, which is currently testing regularly samples from Qatar and Saudi Arabia to the new coronavirus In fact, the result was positive. But of this the doctors of Ruhrlandklinik only learned this Thursday - on the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). Since the patient was back from Qatar largely recovered and one day previously transferred to a rehabilitation hospital.

ANZEIGEDie risk that employees of the Essen hospital or other patients could have been infected with the man with the novel agents estimate the clinic and the RKI indeed be low. Even if the virus could actually be transmitted from person to person, what is still unclear whether the man than on his 19th Illness had come for food, probably hardly been infectious, it said in a statement. In addition, he had been lying in a single room. To date, no hospital staff had shown symptoms of infection.

Nevertheless, the authorities view the world development with growing concern. On Friday informed the World Health Organization, are now already six infections were confirmed with the new coronavirus by laboratory results, two from Qatar and four from Saudi Arabia. Although there is still no evidence of human-to-human transmission, it was the first time a link between two cases produced: In Saudi Arabia, the virus could be detected in two members of a family, one of them died. Two other members of the family were suffering from similar symptoms, one of which also died. Whether it was infected with the virus is still unclear.

The WHO urged its member states to observe the emerging cases of acute respiratory failure well. Because one must assume "that the virus is probably spread further than in the two countries where it was previously demonstrated.

[alert]

Re: Germany - Qatar man sickened by new coronavirus - disclosed a month after hospitalized

NRW is North Rhine Westphalia, I believe, a region in Germany. And this case is male.

http://www.spiegel.de/gesundheit/diagnose/sars-patient-an-coronavirus-erkrankt-und-in-deutschland-behandelt-a-868972.html

Patient suffering from dangerous coronavirus: NRW treated
REUTERS
Coronavirus magnified under microscope: Infected ill with SARS-like symptoms
A novel pathogen provides with health authorities for stress: A man from Qatar had been infected with the dangerous coronavirus that causes SARS-like symptoms. As was known now, doctors have treated in a German specialty clinic patients.

It is the world's fifth-known infection with the dangerous coronavirus that makes itself heard for some time, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other health authorities: The infected man was initially in a hospital in the oil state of Qatar, but came because of severe respiratory symptoms in a special chest clinic after North Rhine-Westphalia, such as the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), announced on Friday in Berlin.


There, the patient was treated in intensive care, according to the Robert Koch Institute, whereupon his condition had improved considerably. A total of four weeks he spent in the hospital earlier in the week he had been dismissed. About possible diseases that could have to do with the infection of the patient are, therefore, been no reports, according to a press release from the RKI. Currently, a detailed survey of all contacts with the hospital and the competent health authority shall under way.

An infected have died

The samples of the patient were sent accordingly from Qatar to the UK and examined there for the novel coronavirus. The laboratory results confirmed the suspicion: The man with HCoV-EMC, so infected the abbreviation of the virus. So far the authorities an additional confirmed case of Qatar and three cases from Saudi Arabia are known. One of them had died in June of infection.

Particularly striking in most patients is a severe respiratory distress syndrome, similar to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), with simultaneous acute renal failure. A connection between the individual cases, experts could not detect so far. It also occurred at longer intervals. It is, as it says in the press release of "sporadic infections of unknown cause" out. Therefore classifies the RKI the risk of disease in Germany continues to be low.

[alert]

Re: Germany - Qatar man sickened by new coronavirus - disclosed a month after hospitalized

This article further describes case #5 as a middle aged Qatari male:

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/health/121123/coronavirus-sars-virus-confirmed-qatari-man

Combining this with Shiloh's post in the Saudi thread, it appears all the confirmed/probable cases are male. That's unusual, and likely an important clue.

[curiosity]

Re: Germany - Qatar man sickened by new coronavirus - disclosed a month after hospitalized

Combining this with Shiloh's post in the Saudi thread, it appears all the confirmed/probable cases are male. That's unusual, and likely an important clue.

Do women and men receive equal medical care in Saudi Arabia?
Is medical coverage available equally to women and men in Saudi Arabia?

Gender discrepancies in medical coverage and care will slant epidemiological patterns.

[alert]

Re: Germany - Qatar man sickened by new coronavirus - disclosed a month after hospitalized

Do women and men receive equal medical care in Saudi Arabia?
Is medical coverage available equally to women and men in Saudi Arabia?

Gender discrepancies in medical coverage and care will slant epidemiological patterns.

IMO, there are many different ways of reading this. Saudi Arabia has one of the lowest labor force participation rates for women in the world. It is entirely conceivable that this disease is being contracted occupationally (such as through raising goats, sheep, or camels), and women are simply not being exposed.

Alternatively. perhaps you are correct and that due to cultural phenomena, female cases are less likely to be diagnosed than male ones.

As a third possibility, might female cases be diagnosed and not reported accurately? Could there be a reason to report cases as male even if they are not, to avoid issues of women's privacy?

At this point, any of those explanations might explain why all the cases so far are male, but coincidence seems unlikely.