Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: https://www.caixinglobal.com/2020-0...rus-causes-rapid-deterioration-101513378.html
Feb 10, 2020 05:51 AM
SOCIETY & CULTURE
In Depth: ICU Doctors Bear the Brunt as Coronavirus Causes Rapid Deterioration
By Gao Yu, Xiao Hui, Bao Zhiming, Ding Gang and Han Wei
(Wuhan) — It took only a few minutes for Peng Zhiyong to make a decision that he knew could be highly risky — admitting a patient diagnosed with “unknown viral pneumonia.”
That was Jan. 6. Peng, the director of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the South Central Hospital of Wuhan University, signed off on accepting the patient into his department. Before that, the person from Huanggang, a city 76 kilometers away from Wuhan in Hubei province, was turned away by several hospitals.
The patients’ mysterious, infectious pneumonia later proved to be caused by a new strain of coronavirus known as 2019-nCoV. Since December the disease quickly spread from Wuhan to the rest of China and beyond. As of Saturday, confirmed infections of the virus surpassed 35,000 in 25 countries. It is evolving into one of the most dangerous epidemics in the past 20 years.
But in early January, public awareness of the looming epidemic was still limited. Word started circulating among physicians in Wuhan of a rising number of pneumonia patients infected by a virus similar to SARS — a deadly coronavirus that claimed nearly 800 lives in a 2003 outbreak...
Feb 10, 2020 05:51 AM
SOCIETY & CULTURE
In Depth: ICU Doctors Bear the Brunt as Coronavirus Causes Rapid Deterioration
By Gao Yu, Xiao Hui, Bao Zhiming, Ding Gang and Han Wei
(Wuhan) — It took only a few minutes for Peng Zhiyong to make a decision that he knew could be highly risky — admitting a patient diagnosed with “unknown viral pneumonia.”
That was Jan. 6. Peng, the director of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the South Central Hospital of Wuhan University, signed off on accepting the patient into his department. Before that, the person from Huanggang, a city 76 kilometers away from Wuhan in Hubei province, was turned away by several hospitals.
The patients’ mysterious, infectious pneumonia later proved to be caused by a new strain of coronavirus known as 2019-nCoV. Since December the disease quickly spread from Wuhan to the rest of China and beyond. As of Saturday, confirmed infections of the virus surpassed 35,000 in 25 countries. It is evolving into one of the most dangerous epidemics in the past 20 years.
But in early January, public awareness of the looming epidemic was still limited. Word started circulating among physicians in Wuhan of a rising number of pneumonia patients infected by a virus similar to SARS — a deadly coronavirus that claimed nearly 800 lives in a 2003 outbreak...