Taipei, April 26 (CNA) The new H7N9 avian flu virus is more lethal
than the strain of coronavirus that caused the global outbreak of severe
acute respiratory syndrome in 2003, a doctor at National Taiwan
University Hospital said Friday.
Citing a University of Hong Kong
research report, Huang Li-min, head of the hospital's Department of
Pediatric Infectious Diseases, said people infected with the H7N9 virus
can get sick quickly, and the disease has a fatality rate estimated at
over 10 percent.
"Such a ratio is higher than that of the SARS
virus," Huang said, noting that the World Health Organization (WHO)
estimated the mortality rate for SARS at about 8 percent.
According
to data on the website of Taiwan's Centers for Disease Control, China
had 114 confirmed H7N9 cases, with 23 deaths as of 6 p.m. Friday, which
translated into a mortality rate of about 20 percent.
But the
University of Hong Kong report said there are at least as many
undiscovered cases as confirmed cases, putting the new bird flu strain's
fatality rate at slightly higher than 10 percent.
The H7N9
strain of the flu was not known to infect people until March 31, when
China reported its first cases of human infections of the virus. Before
then, it was only found in birds.
The first H7N9 case reported in
Taiwan involved a 53-year-old man who fell ill with symptoms of fever
and fatigue on April 12, three days after returning to Taiwan from
Suzhou in Jiangsu Province, one of the H7N9-affected areas in China.
Huang
said the patient was transferred to National Taiwan University Hospital
April 20 and has been treated in a negative pressure quarantine ward
since.
The patient is being given ECMO (extracorporeal membrane
oxygenation) treatment and is in "serious but stable" condition, Huang
added.
Chang Shang-chun, the hospital's deputy superintendent who
is also an infectious disease expert, recalled that Taiwan's first SARS
patient also received treatment there.
"But while the SARS
patient was in serious condition, he did not need ECMO therapy, a sign
that the H7N9 virus is even more virulent," Chang said.
Keiji
Fukuda, the WHO's assistant director-general for health, security and
the environment, said at a news conference in Beijing recently that the
H7N9 is definitely one of the most lethal viruses that have been seen so
far.
Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center said Friday that
the tracking period for suspected H7N9 cases or those potentially
exposed to the virus will be extended from seven days to 10 days.
The
extension is needed to more effectively detect any H7N9 infection as
studies published in medical journals such as The Lancet and New England
Journal of Medicine are saying the virus's incubation period could
reach 10 days, longer than the originally estimated seven days, the
center said.
The tracking period for those who have come into
contact with Taiwan's first imported H7N9 case will also be extended to
10 days, the center said.
(By Chen Ching-fang and Sofia Wu)
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http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aall/201304260027.aspx