SA: Cause of Wuhan’s Mysterious Pneumonia Cases Still Unknown, Chinese Officials Say

The number of people infected with pneumonia increased from 44 to 59 in the Chinese city Wuhan. The cause remains unknown at this time, but it does not appear to be transmitting person to person and no health workers appear ill. There has been a decrease from 11 to 7 people that are considered critically ill. Ralph Baric, who studies emerging viruses at the University of North Carolina, believes that this virus may have spilled over from animals. He emphasizes the race between virus evolution and the public health control measures to prevent spread. The predominant symptoms of this outbreak are fever, some difficulty breathing and lung lesions visible on x-rays. Most of the patients have tested positive for a mixture of known respiratory illness such as the flu, rhinovirus, and RSV. If this outbreak is not due to a new virus, Marion Koopmans, director of department of virology at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherland, believes that this could be a “pseudo-outbreak” if flu activity is high.

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