With China becoming increasingly isolated in world markets until their viral panic gets sorted out, any glimmer of hope will be welcomed indeed. This may be that first glimmer.
Let’s take a quick recap of how bad it’s gotten over there before we look toward the potential medical breakthrough that makes up our ‘light at the end of the tunnel’.
China’s people need any hope they can get, considering the fact that their nation has taken a beating while this virus scare turns once-vibrant cities into eerie ghost towns.
Here’s just one of many videos with the #ghosttown hashtag.
Shanghai is a city of 24 million people and downtown is empty #ghosttown #ChinaPneumonia #ChinaVirus #Virus #coronavirus #coronovirusoutbreak #China #shanghai #Quarantine #SuperSaturdayNight more pics in my stories on insta @tallada12 pic.twitter.com/ftFpBO4ZUe
— Alvaro Tallada (@LaVidaDeTallada) February 2, 2020
Chinese officials have taken to using drones with speakers to tell citizens to go home.
Walking around without a protective face mask? Well, you can't avoid these sharp-tongued drones! Many village and cities in China are using drones equipped with speakers to patrol during the #coronavirus outbreak. pic.twitter.com/ILbLmlkL9R
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) January 31, 2020
There’s at least one sad story about an infected man in China even throwing himself off of a bridge because he was refused treatment in a hospital, and he was afraid of bringing the illness home to his family.
https://twitter.com/sotiridi/status/1223928257491472384
For all the talk about China’s obscene wealth, that doesn’t mean their citizens have the supplies they need to protect their health or lives.
Facing a severe shortage of masks amid #coronavirus outbreak, Chinese people have come up with unique ideas to make their special masks. pic.twitter.com/KleBWcMjAc
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) February 2, 2020
So ANY good news on the treatment front will be welcome, not just for China, but for anyone else who’s been caught up in that virus, not to mention, everyone who does business with China in this hyper-connected world we live in.
And we’re happy to report a modest step toward the solution.
Like we’ve said. It’s not a ‘cure’ yet, and a vaccine is likely to be a little way off still. But we have some badly-needed hope.
More than 17,000 infections have been confirmed, and 362 people have died so far. Until the weekend, all of those deaths occurred in China, which is where the Wuhan coronavirus originated. But that’s no longer the case, as 2019-nCoV has now claimed its first victim outside of China. A vaccine is months away, but as researchers are now racing to release one because the first promising treatment has been discovered.
…As for the treatment, doctors will prescribe medicine intended to ease the symptoms and kill the virus — as you can see in the screenshots above (stats from February 3rd) and below (stats from February 2nd), hundreds of patients are confirmed to have been cured.
Some doctors may attempt different cocktails of drugs to fight against the virus, as is the case with healthcare professionals in Bangkok, Thailand. Per Reuters doctors from the Rajavithi Hospital in Bangkok used a mixture of HIV drugs (lopinavir and ritonavir) and a flu drug (oseltamivir) in large doses on several patients. A 70-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan who tested positive for 2019-nCoV for 10 straight days showed no signs of the virus after 48 hours using this treatment. However, this is not a final treatment and more testing is required. Chinese health officials have been treating the virus with either HIV or flu meds, but Thai doctors used all of them simultaneously.
A different doctor used similar practices on two patients, with one showing signs of improvement, and the other developing an allergic reaction. Out of Thailand’s 19 confirmed cases, eight have recovered, and 11 remain under treatment.
Over in the Philippines where only two cases were registered so far, a 44-year-old man who traveled from Wuhan died, The New York Times reports. The man arrived in the country on January 21st with a 38-year-old woman who remains under observation. This is the first case of a coronavirus death registered outside of China since the start of the outbreak.
Source: BGR
