Florence Cunzolo
02/27/2020 - 17:36
- Clarín.com
- Good Life
The Ministry of Health of the Nation today extended the definition of a suspected case of coronavirus to any person with fever and one or more respiratory symptoms (cough, respiratory distress, sore throat) without another cause that fully explains the picture and has maintained contact with confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19, or been in areas with local transmission of the virus that, to date, in addition to China now includes 4 regions of northern Italy (Emilia Romagna, Lombardy, Piedmont and Veneto), Korea from the South, Japan and Iran.
"In those cases from Italy, South Korea, Japan and Iran, the epidemiological risk will be evaluated according to the official international information and on a case-by-case basis with the national health authority," the health portfolio said in updating the recommendations for Health teams posted this afternoon.
Only samples that meet that definition of a suspect case will be processed, they need from the Ministry.
Yesterday, Brazil became the first country in South America to report a case of the new coronavirus, which has already produced more than 78,000 infections in China and 2,700 deaths ; and more than 2,900 cases in another 37 countries (with 44 dead).
"It is what happens in the rest of the world our greatest concern right now," said the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press conference. It is that in the last two days, the daily number of infections outside China exceeded those that occur within the country in which the epidemic began.
He stressed, however, that "the evidence we have shows that there seems to be no widespread transmission ", but stressed that "epidemics in Iran, Italy and South Korea demonstrate what this virus is capable of."
The update of the recommendations issued by the Ministry of Health are in line with the evolution of the epidemic, so they clarify that " the case definition is dynamic and may vary according to the epidemiological situation."
The document specifies that a suspected case is considered a probable case in which Influenza (influenza) has been ruled out by PCR technique and that has a positive test for pancoronavirus and negative for MERS-CoV coronaviruses, 229E, OC43, HKU1 and NL63 . While the case that presents a genomic sequence homologous to the new virus is considered a confirmed case.
Meanwhile, Minister Ginés González García confirmed today that the 21 cases studied in the country were negative and stressed that prevention protocols are active.
The head of the health portfolio insisted that the entire health system was reinforced for the "early detection" of the virus, which will enable the activation of protocols for the "isolation and treatment" of possible suspected cases. However, he called again for calm , insisted that there were still no cases in the country and stressed that based on what was seen so far in the world, 8 out of 10 are mild and do not require hospitalization.
Following the situation in Italy, the additional evaluation carried out on passengers arriving at Ezeiza airport on direct flights from that country continues. The Secretary of Access to Health Carla Vizzotti said yesterday that "the epidemiological situation of other countries is being monitored to see if additional measures are necessary." In any case, he warned that in the countries where the cases occurred, most of them were detected by the health system and not the airports, so he stressed that "it is important to convey that the challenge is early consultation."
Coronavirus is spread mainly by contact with an infected person through respiratory droplets that are generated when you cough or sneeze, for example, or through saliva droplets or secretions from the nose.
The disease may present with mild signs and symptoms such as fever and cough, malaise, rhinorrhea (runny nose), odynophagia (sore throat) that may or may not be associated with severe symptoms such as respiratory distress, tachypnea (increased respiratory rate) . It can also be presented as a picture of interstitial pneumonia and / or with compromise of the alveolar space.