February 2, 2020

expert reaction to first reported death from coronavirus outside China

The first death from coronavirus outside of China was reported in the Philippines.  

Dr John Tregoning, Reader in Respiratory Infections, Imperial College London, said:

“In the context of the majority of cases being in China and that the recent death was from Wuhan, it is not more concerning than the other deaths.”

Dr Michael Head, Senior Research Fellow in Global Health, University of Southampton, said:

“There has now been a coronavirus-associated death outside of the China, in the Philippines.  However, the risks remain generally low to the UK population.  As of Sunday, a total of 266 UK tests have concluded, of which 264 were confirmed negative (with those 2 positive cases already reported).  People should keep an eye on the latest guidance from Public Health England, but be reassured by the low numbers of cases so far in the UK.

“The death in the Philippines is from an individual who had travelled to China, so they were at high-risk of exposure to the coronavirus.  The patient is also reported to have had pre-existing health conditions, and this fits in with the pattern of deaths we have seen so far in China.  Containment of any secondary cases in the Philippines will be crucial.  It’s a densely-populated country covering many islands, some of which have little access to healthcare.”

All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink:

http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/wuhan-coronavirus/

Declared interests

None received.