根據過去嚴重急性呼吸道症候群(SARS)和中東呼吸症候群冠狀病毒感染症(MERS)的經驗，醫療院所應保持高度警戒，避免造成院內感染成為新型冠狀病毒(2019-nCoV)的傳播來源。然而目前並不清楚感染新冠肺炎的危險因子，以及輕症或無症狀者對疫情所造成的影響程度，必須有待更多流行病學研究，才能有完整了解。目前新型冠狀病毒完整基因定序已完成，流行病學研究也有初步結果，都只是對此病原體第一步的了解而已，許多重要問題仍待釐清。抗病毒藥物目前正在進行臨床試驗，我們需要保持高度的警戒，避免讓新冠肺炎疫情擴大成全球大流行，也必須對新冠肺炎疫情所帶來的挑戰和對社會的衝擊做好準備!
(財團法人國家衛生研究院 蔡慧如博士摘要整理)
In December, 2019, Wuhan, Hubei province, China, became the centre of an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown cause, which raised intense attention not only within China but internationally. Chinese health authorities did an immediate investigation to characterise and control the disease, including isolation of people suspected to have the disease, close monitoring of contacts, epidemiological and clinical data collection from patients, and development of diagnostic and treatment procedures. By Jan 7, 2020, Chinese scientists had isolated a novel coronavirus (CoV) from patients in Wuhan. The genetic sequence of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) enabled the rapid development of point-of-care real-time RT-PCR diagnostic tests specific for 2019-nCoV (based on full genome sequence data on the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data [GISAID] platform). Cases of 2019-nCoV are no longer limited to Wuhan. Nine exported cases of 2019-nCoV infection have been reported in Thailand, Japan, Korea, the USA, Vietnam, and Singapore to date, and further dissemination through air travel is likely.
As of Jan 23, 2020, confirmed cases were consecutively reported in 32 provinces, municipalities, and special administrative regions in China, including Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.
These cases detected outside Wuhan, together with the detection of infection in at least one household cluster—reported by Jasper Fuk-Woo Chan and colleagues
in The Lancet—and the recently documented infections in health-care workers caring for patients with 2019-nCoV indicate human-to-human transmission and thus the risk of much wider spread of the disease. As of Jan 23, 2020, a total of 835 cases with laboratory-confirmed 2019-nCoV infection have been detected in China, of whom 25 have died and 93% remain in hospital (figure).
Author：Chen Wang, Peter W Horby, Frederick G Hayden, et al.
原文連結：https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30185-9/fulltext