China coronavirus: Philippines and Australia investigating suspected cases after Wuhan visits
- Five-year-old child in Cebu has been tested, while Australia has placed a man in isolation in northeastern city of Brisbane
- Many Asian countries have stepped up monitoring efforts ahead of Lunar New Year, when many Chinese people will travel
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A five-year-old child arrived in the Philippine city of Cebu on January 12 from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the disease was discovered, and has been hospitalised since with flu symptoms.
Although the child tested positive for a virus, authorities in Manila say they are not sure if it is the same one that has infected more than 200 people and killed four people in China.
China coronavirus outbreak: Malaysia on ‘high alert’ ahead of Lunar New Year travel rush
“The child is considered a person under investigation,” Philippine health secretary Francisco Duque told a press briefing in Manila.
The child was already showing symptoms like fever, throat irritation and cough before arriving in the central city of Cebu with a parent, the health department said.
Samples from the child were sent to a lab in Australia, which is also investigating its first possible case of the virus.
A man who visited Wuhan was recovering from a respiratory illness at his home in the northeastern city of Brisbane, where health authorities were awaiting the results of tests to determine whether he had contracted the virus.
The pathogen has caused alarm because it is from the same family as Sars (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed nearly 650 people across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.
Chinese authorities have stepped up monitoring and disinfection efforts ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday in late January, when many of China’s 1.4 billion people will travel domestically and overseas.
The WHO earlier this week said there was an indication the virus – thought to have originated in a seafood and animal meat market in Wuhan – could spread through human-to-human transmission.
“The speed of response is testimony to improved global preparedness,” said Jeremy Farrar, director of British healthcare foundation Wellcome Trust. “But we must not be complacent, there is still much to be done to ensure countries across the world are protecting people from epidemic threats of diseases known and unknown.”
Additional reporting by Reuters
