Italian scene 01 "novel coronavirus is cunning and good at camouflage, invisible patients become epidemic prevention loopholes, 60% of the global cases still need to be excavated."

20 share

Since the outbreak of novel coronavirus (Covid-19) in Italy in late February, the number of confirmed cases has skyrocketed to 7, 000 in just over two weeks. Although more than 600 people have recovered, it is still the country with the worst epidemic outside Asia. In the early morning of March 8, an emergency order was issued that without permits, there will be no entry or exit of Lombardia and 14 other provinces, involving about 16 million people. It accounts for 1/4 of the country's population.

Why is the epidemic in Italy so serious? What are the implications of Italy's experience? The "upstream and downstream" correspondent in Italy brings a live report, which is divided into two articles. This article is series 01. Please click here to read 02.

After the soft closure of the city, the streets without cars (Photo / Zheng Jieyi) the "invisible patient" is a loophole in epidemic prevention, and the average age of the dead is 81.

Called "the first patient to recover", 47-year-old Sara disagreed. "everyone says I'm cured, but the problem is, I'm not sick at all." However, more than ten days ago, she tested positive for novel coronavirus (Covid-19). Although she has no typical symptoms of fever or cough, she is currently in home isolation.

Family doctor Marco also contracted novel coronavirus, commonly known as "Wuhan pneumonia". His only symptom was some rhinitis. Sarah and Marco are not in the minority. According to the Italian Ministry of Health, half of those who test positive have no symptoms or mild symptoms, so as to ease people's panic.

However, these "invisible patients" also happen to be loopholes in the epidemic prevention net. without realizing that they have become carriers, they continue to live a normal life and travel everywhere, and others are not on guard, allowing the cunning novel coronavirus to infiltrate every corner of the world.

Compared with the ferocious SARS with a case fatality rate of 10 per cent, novel coronavirus, who is currently estimated by the World Health Organization (WHO) at 3.4 per cent, is milder. But not everyone is as lucky as Sarah and Marco not to suffer too much from the virus. Novel coronavirus has stronger transmission power, once the number of infections is large, the final death toll is still worrying, especially the elderly with chronic diseases are exposed to extremely high risk. In Italy, where 23% of the population is over 65, the death toll has exceeded 200. The average age of the dead is 81, and 75% of the dead are over 70.

Under the camouflage of the virus, many patients have no symptoms of pneumonia

Wuhan closed the city on January 23, and the people were grounded, but they could not stop the virus from running to the world. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, secretary-general of the World Health Organization, said on February 9 that there would be more and more cases of pneumonia in Wuhan without a history of Chinese tourism. "what we are seeing may be just the tip of the iceberg."

The words are still ringing in our ears. Italy hit a big iceberg on February 20. In just two weeks, the number of cases of immigration from abroad soared to about 6,000. The commonly used term "Wuhan pneumonia" in Taiwan is increasingly unable to accurately describe the power of the official name "2019 coronavirus disease" (Covid-19), which occurs not only in Wuhan, but also in many patients with no symptoms of pneumonia.

Novel coronavirus, who is good at camouflage, evades the monitoring of the medical system, secretly crosses national boundaries and silently invades human health. Some patients with mild symptoms rest at home or take their own medicine without seeing a doctor at all. Even after going to the hospital, the common symptoms listed by the World Health Organization: fever, dry cough, tiredness, phlegm, which are very similar to colds and flu, it is very difficult for front-line doctors to see through the difficult novel coronavirus. Not to mention some people, like Sarah, don't feel sick at all.