Coronavirus in China

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I am concerned that the UK Government is being too slow about setting up some kind of testing at airports.
Should we be testing passengers for raised temperatures?
Surely this could be done for incoming flights from China and affected countries?

They are screening passengers from China at Heathrow andhave been for a day or so.

Flights will arrive in an isolated area of Terminal 4, where they will be met by a port health team including a medical inspector and a doctor. All passengers will be asked about their health and checked for symptoms, including their temperature. They will be given instructions on what to do if they begin to feel ill once in the UK.

OK That's good to know.

They were only going to be screening patients from Wuhan, however the day after this measure was announced Wuhan airport was closed anyway.

There are a couple of other threads on this in AIBU

Patients?? Passengers even!

I think it's good to have a separate thread from AIBU :)

It is reported that 7 people out of the 24 who have been registered as dying from this had no fever, but I don't think I've seen anything that officially backs that up. Also of course, it also doesn't catch people who are still incubating the virus. So screening will only be partially effective.

It wouldn’t really catch anyone who hadn’t caught a direct flight either, would it?

And defining affected countries is tricky. At the moment, I think most (if not all) of the other affected countries have isolated cases where a patient is know to have travelled to China. Screening all flights from the US, for example, might be a bit excessive. Obviously that situation could change.

Looks like we are agreed that screening at airports has limited effectiveness.

I really feel for those in Wuhan and other cities that have been partially locked down. It is hard to imagine the impact of shutting down the public transport network of somewhere like London.

Screening might not help if a person is contagious before they are symptomatic. Also depends on the incubation period. Nevertheless it's a developing situation and although WHO haven't yet declared it an international health emergency, it is early days. I too feel for the people of Wuhan and other cities in lock down, must be a worrying time.

It's def a worry.
The number of people diagnosed is only the people who have been to hospital and have been sick enough to test. There's probably thousands who haven't been formally tested. ...the numbers are the tip of the iceberg.

Bottom line is that we are likely to have flu on it's way- OK for most of us but a worry for the elderly/sick.

:(

So I'm not worried from a personal view at this point. That would be a waste of worry.

But I think we need to get away from the idea that we only need to worry about elderly/sick. a) we don't really know that yet, the virus has only just emerged into the human population. b) we are talking about vast numbers of people in more vulnerable categories. Thinking about my family we have me on immunosupressants and two others who have asthma. I feel like we are being written off!

I agree OhYouBadBadKitten, I have family members with autoimmune illnesses and friends with diabetes and asthma. Are we/they less important?

After a rather scary flu experience two years ago, which landed me and DD in A & E (three days apart) as well as DM developing pneumonia as a 'complication', I have more respect for general flu. I had swine flu in 2009 and it took me a good while to recover, I was 'young' and fit then as well.

Did you interpret my post as me saying that those with pre existing conditions/elderly are/should be written off?
If so, that's certainly not what I meant - I meant the precise opposite.
The fit and healthy will probably be able to fight flu better so don't need to worry too much. But we do need to worry about those that aren't fit/healthy/young.

Sorry bp some people of other threads are basically implying that.

Yes, sorry I was also venting about another couple of threads on the subject too

I agree about the other threads. Parts of them did feel very much like those of us with underlying health problems were just being written off.

Your post didn’t come across like that at all bpisok

It seems to be developing very quickly.

I would like to see flight to all affected countries suspected, but it won’t happen.

I feel like this is potentially worse than being reported

It's bad because of air travel which allows it to spread.

Don't know about the reporting, I suppose it might be worse than reported because China does control the news.

I really hope I'm wrong but I fear that it's a lot worse than reported. Why would 35 million people be put into lock down otherwise?

Yes i do think it's probably worse unfortunately.

2 cases in France announced this evening. Bordeaux & Paris

If it takes me out (feeling fine now) I've had nearly 64 years of robust good health, and if this kills me, so be it. We all have to die; it's the only certainty.

Well France is very close to home.