Japan classifies new-virus pneumonia as designated infectious disease

To put this into perspective: In the flu season of 2017-2018 the influenza virus killed 80,000 in the USA, 25,000 in Germany,.... (couldn't find the number in Japan). With that in mind, shouldn't the flu also be a "designated infectious disease"? Just asking, not suggesting. More important for Japan would be that people with a viral infection should be allowed to stay home without repercussions and NOT to be expected to do the gaman thing and go sneezing and coughing on crowded trains to work or school.

finally rich - absolutely spot on. Companies need to accept that encouraging gaman is going to reap a harvest of a sick workforce working inefficiently if at all.

Coming into the office, sneezing and snotting everywhere (Especially with the renowned aversion to hand-washing that many oyajis display) is not a sign of devotion to work. It demonstrates a lack of consideration for your coworkers and fellow commuters.

If you're sick, stay home. Keep your germs away from the trains.

This law won’t go into effect until Fdb. 7th. So pretty much no quarantine, hospitalization, or disinfection until then???

I wonder if the authorities hospitalized the woman who was returned to her hotel, after testing positive for the virus?

@KnowBetter: China actually did really build a hospital in 8 days during the SARS outbreak in the early 2000's. I remember this quite well and the scenes were similar. China has enough people and enough control over people to get things done in an amazingly quick manner.

Also the fact that China has stopped all overseas tours from China is a very good step.

I am not a big China fan but I have to admit that they are managing this the best they can considering the circumstances. We have to remember the incubation period for this virus has just recently been discovered and I think everyone is adjusting as they go.

What I wish China would do is shut down these markets which have now been pretty much been proven to be the root cause of these types of virus transmissions from animals to humans.

In that video link that Aly Rustom provided, the doctor goes on record to state that they are building two hospitals for 1300 people at the 12:05 mark in the youtube video. Not sure if he meant 1300 each or combined but the claim is that they will be finish by Wednesday. Just when did they start building these hospitals or will these be mass graves? Who builds that fast? In the video you can see what appears to be at least 74 excavators and bulldozers working on a site which for the most part looks like a dirt field. Something does add up here and yet again I think China is bending the truth.

This law won’t go into effect until Fdb. 7th. So pretty much no quarantine, hospitalization, or disinfection until then???

Well, the infected need to have a head start so officials have something to do when everything goes to sith.

Just when did they start building these hospitals or will these be mass graves? Who builds that fast?

If you throw enough manpower, money, and lack of concern for safety and regulation, a bare-minimum facility could be built in that timeframe. I’ve seen Army engineers put up some pretty impressive FOBs in a short time.

That said, this “hospital” will most likely be bare bones minimum and lack a lot of human comfort accessories.... like an FOB.

Shinjuku Terminal... reminds me of the last time I took a 6 hours night bus.. got a flu/cough that wouldn't go away for 2 weeks. Guess being confined with 30+ people for hours without any ventilation is not very recommended these days...

More important for Japan would be that people with a viral infection should be allowed to stay home without repercussions and NOT to be expected to do the gaman thing and go sneezing and coughing on crowded trains to work or school.

Forget about it, Japan is the place where you can watch med ads on tv selling their pills with the slogan literally saying "for you who can't skip your work due to the flu".

mu-da, those numbers are quite sobering and it really does make one stop and think. However, if only half of all Americans caught the flu that season and it was a pretty bad one, that would make the death rate for that season .0488%.

At current rate as of 14:34JST January 28, 2020, the Wuhan Coronavirus has 4,474 total confirmed and 107 deaths which would make it have a 2.39% death rate which is 49 times more deadly.

49 TIMES MORE DEADLY THAN THE COMMON FLU during the worse Flu season in four decades.

Small but good news, a traveler from Wuhan but is healthy in Osaka asked to extend his travelers visa for 15 days as obviously he didn’t and can’t go back. He wasn’t expecting the request to be approved but immigration in Osaka approved to extend the visa for 30 days. This is reported by Preston Li a Chinese journalist in Japan. Any Chinese citizens especially from Wuhan who do not to go back soon should try immigration to extend the visa before giving up hope.

Work told us this morning that Toyohashi has announced a bofu keiho.

Have a friend living out there.

an excellent breakdown and explaination of the corona virus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NHO_VeFDhw

@ knowbetter

At current rate as of 14:34JST January 28, 2020, the Wuhan Coronavirus has 4,474 total confirmed and 107 deaths which would make it have a 2.39% death rate which is 49 times more deadly.

Your play with numbers is skewed. First you say" if half of all Americans caught the flu..." which is an assumption entirely and then you compare that with 4,474 total confirmed cases for the Wuhan virus and from that you conclude that the Wuhan virus is 49 times more deadly. Well... I think you should spend a bit more time on the website of the CDC or other reliable sources.

2 more cases just reported in Japan. First man to man infection.

one is a Japanese bus driver. He says he was driving a tour from Wuhan in Tokyo, got first sick on the 14th, then is in hospital since the 25th

Pneumonia is not contagious, it develops as a secondary disease to flu

This corona virus is contagious! Not all people who get the flu get pneumonia and not all they get pneumonia have the flu either!

People who have lowered immune systems are most vulnerable to this virus!

Good to the see the government be proactive about this health scare. People in Japan who have this virus need to be separated from the rest so the virus just runs out of steam and fades away. Like SARS did nearly 20 years ago.

@KnowBetter

The data you used for your "49 times" is not comparable. You're comparing confirmed cases against a notional figure of "half of Americans". If I understand the document linked to below correctly (not sure if I do), the mortality rate for pneumonia and influenza rose as high as 10.8% in the US in the 2017-2018 season.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6722a4.htm?s_cid=mm6722a4_w

Pneumonia is not contagious, it develops as a secondary disease to flu

So what happened to the woman who was returned to her hotel, as well as all the people and places she came into contact with?

The coronavirus vs influenza:

“When we think about the relative danger of this new coronavirus and influenza, there’s just no comparison,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and health policy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “Coronavirus will be a blip on the horizon in comparison. The risk is trivial.”

…

Influenza rarely gets this sort of attention, even though it kills more Americans each year than any other virus, said Dr. Peter Hotez, a professor of pediatrics, molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

….

Worldwide, the flu causes up to 5 million cases of severe illness worldwide and kills up to 650,000 people every year, according to the World Health Organization.

…..

If Americans aren’t afraid of the flu, perhaps that’s because they are inured to yearly warnings. For them, the flu is old news. Yet viruses named after foreign places – such as Ebola, Zika and Wuhan – inspire terror.

“Familiarity breeds indifference,” Schaffner said. “Because it’s new, it’s mysterious and comes from an exotic place, the coronavirus creates anxiety.”

Some doctors joke that the flu needs to be rebranded.

“We should rename influenza; call it XZ-47 virus, or something scarier,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/01/24/coronavirus-versus-flu-influenza-deadlier-than-wuhan-china-disease/4564133002/

Important thing about all this is that it spreads even before the symptoms are felt or visible.

They also do not know if humans can in turn infect other animals and then retransmitted back to humans. It is only assumed that once transmitted to humans, it will only be re-transmitted to humans. Every virus has different characteristic and mutation rates. It is already known that this virus has already started to mutate.

Caution is needed. New but similar does not mean we can approach it the same way as we did the old ones. Just as we have bacteria that is resistant to medication we know, this can be one that is unpredictable.

So Japan is taking a good first step in recognizing the disease.

I told you masks would sell out soon after this breakout!

Keep dreaming, there will be plenty of masks according the MFGs' in Japan. No worries readers. Nice going Japan government, took some time but why stop there, add "blasting i.e. open sneezing" to the list in the form of education for everyone.

So this virus finally forced folks to switch to vegetarian diet, prices of vegetables have sky rocketed in the affected areas..

@didou ... Just saw that. And experts in HK are saying the number of those already infected could be as high as 44,000 people (source: https://www.scmp.com/video/hong-kong/3047932/coronavirus-hong-kong-medical-experts-urge-draconian-measures-study-claims).

I told you masks would sell out soon after this breakout!

The flu is serious. And more widespread. Not to minimize this virus at all. I loathe smoking, but I’ve noticed that my friends who smoke almost never get colds or flu! I wonder if tobacco smoke kills the virus? Two good friends died from smoking caused cancer, but they never had a cold or flu! I don’t know...

Work told us this morning that Toyohashi has announced a bofu keiho.