Wuhan virus spreads ahead of Chinese New Year

Melbourne

A PNEUMONIA outbreak in central China has widened, with more than 200 people now diagnosed with the new SARS-like virus, as those in public health circles now say there is now evidence that the illness is spreading from person to person.

The widening of cases sparked a rally in Chinese drugmakers' shares on Monday. Antibiotic makers Jiangsu Lianhuan Pharmaceutical, Shandong Lukang Pharmaceutical and Shenzhen Neptunus Bioengineering all rose by the 10 per cent daily limit in early trading.

Shares of companies in the travel and hotel sectors dropped on fears of a hit to tourism over the Chinese New Year, traditionally a peak period of spending for China's billion-strong consumer force. Chinese airlines and Macau casino operators were among the biggest losers on Monday, with Air China sinking as much as 7.8 per cent in Hong Kong.

Amid increased searching and testing for the novel virus among people with symptoms like fever and coughing, the number of cases in China surged over the weekend. With the Chinese New Year just days away - a holiday season during which Chinese citizens rack up three billion trips across the country to reunite with family - the virus' spread is likely to intensify.

Wuhan, the central Chinese city at the centre of the outbreak, now has almost 200 confirmed cases, including three fatalities. Cases were also reported in Beijing and the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. Across the region, South Korea detected its first case, adding to those found in Thailand and Japan last week.

The surge in incidences, after the World Health Organisation released guidance for diagnostic detection of the virus on Friday, confirmed that the new pathogen is being transmitted among humans, and not just from animals to humans as was originally hoped.

But there are no reports yet of health-care workers being infected, a sign that the new virus is likely not as infectious as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, which killed almost 800 people 17 years ago.

"It is clear that there is at least some human-to-human transmission from the evidence we have, but we don't have clear evidence that shows the virus has acquired the capacity to transmit among humans easily," said Takeshi Kasai, the WHO's regional director for the western-Pacific, in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Monday. "We need more information to analyse that."

Countries across the world stepped up screening of incoming travellers ahead of the Chinese holiday that starts this Friday, a period of heightened travel for Chinese people.

International airports in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco started screening from late Friday, joining cities in Asia that implemented surveillance measure days after the outbreak was reported on Dec 31.

Singapore is stepping up precautionary measures, which include temperature screening for all travellers arriving from China at Changi Airport and issuing health advisory notices to them from Wednesday.

In Wuhan, health-care workers spread out across the city of 11 million, screening for symptoms among people on planes and at railway stations.

"This is a situation where we're going to see additional cases all around the world as folks look for it more," said Nancy Messonnier, director of the US' Centres for Disease Control and Prevention's National Centre for Immunisation and Respiratory Diseases.

"It's highly plausible that there will be at least a case in the United States, and that's the reason that we're moving forward so quickly with this screening." It's possible that more than 1,700 people in Wuhan have been infected with the virus, Neil Ferguson and colleagues at Imperial College London said in a study Friday.

Their analysis was based on cases reported outside China last week, with the assumption that it takes five or six days for someone to feel unwell after being infected, and another four or five days for the infection to be detected.

The novel coronavirus, known as 2019-nCoV, has triggered alarm because of similarities with the one that sparked SARS 17 years ago. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, some causing illness in people, and others that circulate among animal, including camels, cats and bats, the CDC said. While rare, animal coronaviruses can evolve and infect people, and then spread between people.

The source and transmission routes of the 2019-nCov virus are still unknown, China's National Health Commission said in a statement on Sunday.

Some of the first group of patients in Wuhan worked or shopped at a seafood market where live animals and wildlife parts were also reportedly sold. BLOOMBERG