Chinese man infected with mystery coronavirus quarantined in Nepal

A Chinese man who was found infected with a mystery strain of coronavirus just a few days after returning from Wuhan has been quarantined in Nepal. Sukraraj Tropical Hospital's Director Dr Basudev Pandey confirmed on January 16 that a male from the Chinese province of Wuhan is kept under observation and several tests are currently being carried out. However, Pandey has also said that the suspect has “not shown any symptom so far”. 

Doctors have reportedly warned that the mystery virus is responsible for the outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan could also enter Nepal. The new strain of the virus which is believed to cause pneumonia has already killed two people.

Currently, at least 41 people are diagnosed with same pneumonia. The World Health Organisation has alerted Nepal about preventing the virus from transmitting. However, according to reports, Kathmandu lacks in proper health centres and laboratories for the treatment and diagnoses of infectious diseases. The former director of Epidemiology and Disease Control Division, Dr Baburam Marasini has also said that the possibility of infection in Nepal his relatively high because of the people migrating to and from China.

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Meanwhile, Japan had also confirmed the first case of the virus which was reported in the mainland. The Japanese man had also been to the Chinese city of Wuhan where an outbreak has been declared. 

Marasini further added, “If anyone suffers from such infection then s/he should be transported in such a way so as to prevent the disease from spreading. But we even lack proper ambulance service to transport such patients. They should be transported in double cab ambulance, which we don't have." 

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First case of mystery strain

WHO had confirmed the first case of a novel coronavirus outside China, which has the same family as SARS. The UN health agency had said that the person travelling from Wuhan, China was hospitalised in Thailand and is recovering from the illness.

According to the WHO, novel coronavirus is a new strain in the large family of coronaviruses (CoV) which was not identified in humans before. CoV can cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). CoV is zoonotic which means such viruses transmit between animals and humans. 

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(With inputs from agencies)