January 28, 2020

expert reaction to Correspondence on coronavirus human-to-human transmission in Vietnam

A correspondence piece, published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), reports on a possible case of coronavirus human-to-human transmission in Vietnam.

Prof Tom Solomon, Director, NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections, University of Liverpool, said:

“This report of a 65 year-old man who contracted the novel coronavirus in China, and then passed it on to his son in Vietnam who had had no other contacts, confirms the ability of this virus to spread directly from human to human.  Interestingly the incubation period in the son was just 3 days, which is lower than some estimates, and although there were 28 other close contacts, none had any symptoms.”

‘Importation and human-to-human transmission of a novel coronavirus in Vietnam’ by Lan T. Phan et al. was published in the NEJM at 22:00 UK time on Tuesday 28 January 2020.

DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc2001272

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