By early morning of January 28, 4515 cases of coronavirus have now been confirmed and another 6973 cases have been suspected in China. The coronavirus remains a huge challenge, medical equipment and detection kit are severely inadequate, huge risk remains for epidemic spreading. So do we still have good news now?
Update on Disease research and vaccine development
1. Xu Wenbo, director of the Virus Institute of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters on the 26th that the Center has started the research and development of a new coronavirus vaccine, and has successfully isolated the virus. It is currently screening seed strains. In addition, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention is currently screening drugs for new coronavirus pneumonia.
China CDC has successfully isolated the first new coronavirus strain in China
The Lancet published a research paper about the new coronavirus on January 24. The Lancet and Lancet-Infectious Diseases simultaneously launched the topic of "coronavirus", including two original research papers, two reviews and an editorial.
Among them, Wang Chen, Gao Fu and their colleagues described the sharing of clinical data in the early stage of the outbreak, and cautioned against exaggerating the risk of death, because more attention was paid to critical cases in the early stage, so the mortality rate of early reported cases may be biased. Huang Chaolin and his colleagues provided detailed results of the first 41 laboratory confirmed cases. In another paper, Jasper Fuk-Woo Chan and his colleagues reported clinical and microbiological data of six family members in a family.
The above two studies provide important initial descriptive information for studying the clinical disease spectrum and transmission route of this newly emerging disease.
2. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced the provision of an emergency grant of US$ 5 million and corresponding technical and expert support to help China's relevant partners accelerate their work in the epidemiology of new coronavirus infection, emergency intervention implementation and research and development of pharmaceutical products.
At present, the Gates Foundation is holding discussions with government departments, research institutions and enterprises such as the National Health Commission, the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, relevant research institutes under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen University, and the National Pharmaceutical Group China Biotechnology Company Limited.
It is also urgently mobilizing the Foundation's global resources and expert network to provide financial, technical and international cooperation support in the fields of virus transmission mode, epidemiology, emergency intervention response, real-time testing reagents for new coronavirus, therapeutic drugs and vaccine research and development.
Update on Self-help information release, material and mental health assistance
1. A few days ago, non-governmental organizations in China launched the 2019-nCoV new coronavirus first-hand information/popular science summary catalogue.
The chapters of which include official information summary, relevant medical guidelines, personal home life protection guidelines, non-governmental voluntary information (newly added) and rumor refutation information, and are committed to providing neutral, scientific and effective information on epidemic prevention and control and material assistance needs of affected people.
Original link: https://shimo.im/docs/VDvgrwXWyxhRqhd6/read?from=singlemessage
2. After a 24-hour round-the-clock development, volunteer teams organized mainly by overseas Chinese students, such as Wuhan University, have developed and launched the Demo version of Hubei's medical supplies supply platform, with its website https://onwh.51rry.com
Platform objective: to facilitate material suppliers to directly contact hospitals.
Source: official website/Public Number/Microblog of Major Hospitals Data
3. According to the announcement of Wuhan LGBT+ Center, affected by the new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, Wuhan temporarily closed its exit routes on January 23.
Some HIV-infected people in Wuhan cannot return to Wuhan from outside the city, while patients in Wuhan cannot leave Wuhan or receive antiviral drugs on time. According to the coordination of the provincial disease control center in Hubei province, patients with urgent needs can go to the local treatment site to receive one month's anti-disease drugs. When receiving drugs, they need to provide a copy of their identity cards and application for drugs. Wuhan patients outside Hubei province can contact their own disease control and prevention chief doctors to provide a working contact letter and go to the local AIDS treatment site for help.
4. The mental health support hotline 4001-888-976 set up by the Psychology Department of Beijing Normal University for newly diagnosed pneumonia started at 6: 00 a.m. on January 27.
The hotline aims to provide online mental health counseling services for people in need of mental health support across the country. The mental health hotline is accompanied by one-to-one service, which is suitable for people in urgent need of emotional counseling and psychological support.
It is reported that the hotlines are answered by experienced consultants for about 30 minutes each time. The hotline is open from 6: 00 to 24: 00 every day. In the face of the current epidemic situation, the whole country has taken actions to fight against the new coronavirus.
First-line medical staff, patients, family members and the public are also under psychological pressure that cannot be ignored in the face of the epidemic.
Update on International support
1. The University of Queensland (UQ) announced recently that it has accepted the invitation of CEPI, a coalition organization for vaccine innovation and research, to develop vaccines for the recent coronavirus outbreak in China.
CEPI is an innovative global partnership among public, private, charitable and civil society organizations launched at the Davos Forum in 2017. CEPI is committed to accelerating the development of vaccines against emerging infectious diseases and enabling affected populations to have equitable access to these vaccines during the outbreak of the epidemic.
Professor Paul young, Dean of UQ Institute of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, said in a statement: "The team hopes to develop a vaccine within the next six months, which can be used to help control the epidemic."
2. A Japanese medical personnel in Beijing,who is also a nurse from the Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital and member of JICA Youth Overseas Cooperation Team recently released an article to support epidemic prevention and control, and created cartoons as below: