The First Case of 2019 Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Imported into Korea from Wuhan, China: Implication for Infection Prevention and Control Measures

Abstract

In December 2019, a viral pneumonia outbreak caused by a novel betacoronavirus, the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), began in Wuhan, China. We report the epidemiological and clinical features of the first patient with 2019-nCoV pneumonia imported into Korea from Wuhan. This report suggests that in the early phase of 2019-nCoV pneumonia, chest radiography would miss patients with pneumonia and highlights taking travel history is of paramount importance for early detection and isolation of 2019-nCoV cases.

2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak: A new challenge

“…Most of the patients were males (Table 1) with ranging ages eight to 92 years-old: interestingly, in the first period of this global epidemic there were few cases in young people under fifteen-yearsold [1,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Nevertheless, among known infected subjects outside China prevalence of males and distribution of age, at the time of diagnosis, resemble those in Chinese epidemic [4,6,15].…”

“…Nevertheless, among known infected subjects outside China prevalence of males and distribution of age, at the time of diagnosis, resemble those in Chinese epidemic [4,6,15]. Although past medical histories were not always available [1,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15], hypertension was the most reported underlying condition [1,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] in as many as 80% and 31.2% , respectively, in the case series from Ren et al [9] and Wang et al [12]. Chen et al [10] have described mostly cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases (40%) in their population.…”

“…Chen et al [10] have described mostly cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases (40%) in their population. Furthermore, Ren and colleagues [9] have reported underlying chronic liver disease in their whole population (N=5) and this feature differs, at least so far, from the other cases of 2019-nCoV [1,[4][5][6][7][8][10][11][12][13][14][15].…”

“…Subsequently Chen et al [10] have reported a rate of about 1% of respiratory system diseases, different from an estimated COPD prevalence between 1.2-8.9% in different regions of China [16]. Moreover, interstitial lung diseases, history of smoking, bronchiectasis or asthma were underreported [1,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Diabetes was firstly mentioned by Huang and colleagues [9] and represented the main comorbidity in their cohort (8; 20%) and afterwards other Authors [11][12] reported diabetes in about 10% of subjects.…”

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19): The epidemic and the challenges

“…To decrease the damage associated with COVID-19, public health and infection control measures are urgently required to limit the global spread of the virus [35] . Experience from the early phase of SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia strongly highlighted that travel history, rather than chest radiography, is of paramount importance for early detection and isolation of SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia cases [41] . It is essential to limit human-to-human transmission in order to reduce secondary infections among close contacts and healthcare workers and to prevent transmission amplification events and further international spread from China.…”