Is anyone else concerned with this new virus in China that is becoming a bigger problem every day?

I was in the Beijing airport on Jan. 4. Read about the virus on Jan. 6. Started feeling ill on the 8th or 9th. Still not over it.

Please seek professional medical care, steatopygia.

You posted that at 1649 PST. By 1800 PST that number had risen:

And there’s more!

I’m a nurse. :smiley:

“Contagion” is about a mutant, deadly strain of influenza, and is MUCH better and more accurate than “Outbreak.”

ETA: Both movies are rated 6.6 on IMDB. I’d personally rate “Outbreak” as a 6.5, and “Contagion” an 8 or 9.

You can buy some antibiotics OTC at farm supply stores. My local Theisen’s has them, and some antivirals and antifungals along with large-bore needs used to administer them, and even some animal vaccines, right out on the sales floor.

I found this cool map where you can see the virus spread across the world, Plague Inc style.

The six most pointless ways to panic about the coronavirus

:slight_smile:

Thank you for the tip. I have been wanting to see that.

Which means you are in the group that’s the worst about taking care of themselves. Too busy taking care of others.

I’m living in Shanghai, so I can actually be something of a on-the-ground war correspondent for this one.
Within a km of my home, a street of offices was closed (all the office workers told to work from home), because of one confirmed case. The government is really trying hard to keep this thing under control.

Which brings me to one thing I want to say, which is that, in various foreign forums I’ve seen, the idea that the Chinese government has been slower or more secretive than other countries would be, in the handling of this outbreak, seems to be a popular view. Not on the straight dope yet, but I want to be preemptive on this: most Chinese people have been surprised by how open the government has been internally and externally, and how seriously they’ve taken the threat. There are plenty of anecdotes like the street getting closed that I mentioned, and scientific data is being published in Western journals as well as direct collaboration with foreign disease centers.
I think a lot has been learned after SARS.

BTW I have had a sore throat and runny nose for the last 2 days or so. Almost certainly it is coincidental but everyone’s a hypochondriac in these situations.

Yeah but the OP did not ask whether or not it’s an extinction level event.
All the things you list are things to be legitimately concerned about (especially the andromeda strain), and this new virus is too.
Not jump out your window and run down the street screaming concerned, but yeah, concerned.
If our response is inadequate, huge numbers of people could die and/or suffer.

:confused:
Do people really “seek professional medical care” for presumed viral infections? I’ve never gone to a doctor because of colds/flu. I’ve been pretty ill, but assumed I’d just be told to use symptomatic care.

We’ve returned last Sunday from international travel and my gf has had a fever/cough/congestion for five days now. She was pretty sick initially, seems to be gradually improving. What (other than a bill) would she get from a doctor visit?

And another thing…why do people take their temperatures? Why bother? I can tell when I have a fever, why document it?

Well, I’ve been known to do that, largely for two reasons:

  1. I have asthma, therefore, I am at a higher risk for complications than the average person. I visit the doctor when I do not see rapid improvement so problems can be dealt with sooner rather than later.

  2. I have sometimes worked for employers who want a doctor’s note for an illness lasting more than a day or two.

Because while a fever of 100F is a minor thing, a fever of 102 or 103 is much more serious and may require medical attention, and 104+ is life-threatening in many cases.

I’m guessing that you have been blessed in never having had a truly serious illness in your life. In which case, good for you, we should all be so fortunate.

Sorry. I’ve been kind of panicking and I was going to make a panic type of post but changed my mind for fear of foolishly alarming anyone unecessarily.

I will post a link to the Drudge Report so people who are interested can check out its current headlines. But be warned, they certainly seem alarming to me.

https://www.drudgereport.com

I can’t, or at least not a low grade one.

In a world where online sources get paid for clicks, headlines will always be angled towards the alarming. Stop obsessing over it.

But wouldn’t your condition mirror the grade of your fever? If your thermometer is defective and reads 104F but you feel fine, you don’t run to urgent care, right? Likewise, if you feel like you’re going to die and the thermometer reads 100F you seek medical care.

Other than infants, I just don’t see why that particular parameter is measured and then that result responded to.

I’ve been all kinds of sick. Had my gallbladder removed, a stent placed in a coronary artery, numerous colds and viral infections. No, I do not have asthma, so I cannot speak to that, but other than asthmatics, who is helped by seeking medical care for common viral disease?

I wouldn’t worry about going because right after Chinese New Year ends and infections rates continue to rise, American companies will end any non-essential travel.

I have already seen business trips being cancelled.

Having lived in China during SARS, and currently based in the US for one of the largest manufacturers in China (including about a factory campus with about 100,000 employees, you could say I’m watching this very closely. We have a daily executive war room set up to track the spread, how it is affecting our factory and our supply chains. Nothing notable yet, but China and all of our factories are shut until Feb2. 5 days ago our Wuhan factory implemented temperature checks for every person coming in and out.

Pulled out the playbook from SARS. Good news, this coronavirus was recognized as a threat much faster, there is a playbook, it’s implemented much earlier in the cycle, transmission vector is largely understood (wash your hands and cough into your shoulder and avoid rubbing your eyes or nose).

I’ll read thru this thread and will have a lot more comments later today

Lung disease in general, not just asthma but copd, pulmonary fibrosis, cystic fibrosis and others can benefit from early deployment of steroids, antiviral, antibiotic, hydration, supplemental oxygen, and more depending on the individual condition.

Also folks with congestive heart failure, unstable angina, brittle diabetes, poorly controlled epilepsy, sickle cell anemia, and other significant chronic illnesses.

Those are the patients I want to hear from, and maybe see, when they have a significant viral illness. The otherwise healthy folk will do fine on their own, most (but not all ) of the time.

And some of the sickest folks may run no fevers at all

the year when flu vaccine was in short supply I got it because I am diabetic.