The next big threat to global health? 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV): What advice can we give to travellers? – Interim recommendations January 2020, from the Latin-American society for Travel Medicine (SLAMVI)

Going global – Travel and the 2019 novel coronavirus

“…Intense travel traffic with countries that have already received confirmed cases of 2019-nCoV is seen, as is the case for United States and Spain. In this context, heightened preparedness and response is necessary in order to mitigate the impact of the introduction of this new coronavirus, as has been already doing the Latin American Society for Travel Medicine (SLAMVI) in this region [15].…”

“…Recent studies suggest that the 2019-nCoV does not use other coronavirus receptors, aminopeptidase N and DPP4/CD26 [10]. Now, once again, the world faces the emergence of a new pathogen, another coronavirus, with a more important outbreak in terms of number of cases and deaths, compared to SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV [15]. Certainly, the 2019-nCoV represents a big threat to global health, with a growing number of cases, as reported by WHO (https://www.…”

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

“…Moreover, according to one study, presumed hospital-related transmission of SARS-CoV-2 was suspected in 41% of patients [8] . Based on the evidence of a rapidly increasing incidence of infections [11] and the possibility of transmission by asymptomatic carriers [12] , SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted effectively among humans and exhibits high potential February 20, 2020;7:4 ] for a pandemic [5 , 10 , 13] . In addition to the high transmission efficiency of SARS-CoV-2, the advancement and convenience of global travel could further enhance its worldwide spread [12] .…”

“…Based on the evidence of a rapidly increasing incidence of infections [11] and the possibility of transmission by asymptomatic carriers [12] , SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted effectively among humans and exhibits high potential February 20, 2020;7:4 ] for a pandemic [5 , 10 , 13] . In addition to the high transmission efficiency of SARS-CoV-2, the advancement and convenience of global travel could further enhance its worldwide spread [12] . On 30 January 2020, the WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak as the sixth public health emergency of international concern, following H1N1 (2009), polio (2014), Ebola in West Africa (2014), Zika (2016) and Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (2019).…”

Fatal human coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E) and RSV–Related pneumonia in an AIDS patient from Colombia

“…We have read the article of Yavarian et al [1], showing the prevalence of influenza and not of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in pilgrims and the general population. We would like to discuss the relevance of other respiratory viruses, including other CoV different to MERS-CoV, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoV (SARS-CoV) and the 2019 novel CoV (2019nCoV) [2] in relation to a case of coinfection between HCoV-229E, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and HIV we had in Colombia.…”