Posted on 02/27/2020 7:56:54 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The new coronavirus that is rapidly spreading around the world entered Iran “unseen and undetected,” world health officials said.
Iran, which had just two cases a week ago, confirmed 245 infections as of Thursday morning, but the outbreak could be even more widespread in the country than is currently known, said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s emergencies program.
“This disease came unseen and undetected into Iran, so the extent of infection may be broader than what we may be seeing,” Ryan told reporters at a news conference at the agency’s headquarters in Geneva on Thursday.
Kianoush Jahanpour, a spokesperson for Iran’s health ministry, on Thursday raised the country’s death toll due to the virus to 26. That means Iran has recorded the highest number of coronavirus fatalities outside China.
As epidemics emerge, he added, the health-care system often only picks up the most severe cases because those are the individuals who are likely to seek treatment. He said the broader spread of cases is likely due to surveillance difficulties, rather than the efficacy of Iran’s treatment and isolation protocols.
At the start of an epidemic, “you only see the severe end of the spectrum and then as you do more surveillance you find more mild cases,” he said. “I suspect this has more to do with surveillance and detection of cases at this point.”
Iran’s health ministry has rejected claims from some local officials that the number of dead and infected is far higher than reported. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed concern on Tuesday that Tehran may be withholding “vital details” and urged all countries to “tell the truth about the coronavirus.”
The majority of Iran’s cases have been linked to Qom, a major religious destination for Shiite pilgrims
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Since the virus arrived in Iran about a week ago, nearly all of Iran’s neighboring countries have shut their borders and suspended flights to Iran. Turkey, Armenia, Pakistan and Afghanistan have closed their borders, and Iraq says it has blocked travel to and from Iran. Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have suspended all flights to the Islamic Republic.
Iran hasn’t suspended flights from China, one of its top trading partners, despite nearly all of its Middle Eastern neighbors doing so.
Iran hasn’t suspended flights from China, one of its top trading partners, despite nearly all of its Middle Eastern neighbors doing so.
If the Coronavirus is a biological weapon under development that leaked prematurely, then the exposure in Qom is especially scary. It may mean that Qom, which is the site of an Iranian nuclear e document facility, is in involved with collaboration Iranian collaboration with the Chinese on biological weapon development.
E document should say development
A fatality rate of 11% in Iran (26 out of 245), probably indicates that they are just not identifying the real number of those infected.
So, when do they officially call this a pandemic...since it is now on every continent, except Antartica?
Next up... India.
“They” won’t, ever, necessarily. Because reasons.
Technically, whether they call it for what it is or not, it would have to be an epidemic in several continents or countries. So it is getting close, once it is self-sustaining and “community spreading” or whatever the term is.
India will be a nuke compared to China, sanitation in India will be their biggest threat to spreading the disease, my Son went there for over a week, 3rd world medical facilities with 4th world sanitation.
“Since the virus arrived in Iran about a week ago”
It was a little longer ago than that. The regime knew before the election and didn’t say anything to the people, because they wanted people to go out & vote.
early fatality number /rate comparisons are almost useless without a fixed system of testing and estimating total non-tested infectees.
it gets in hospitals fast, kills there amongst already sick people, and gets the headline rate sky high fast. the same may happen here.
I am much more interested in how long it takes to fully clear the virus from the body (if it happens) and the entire reinfection dynamic. what prevents a continuous reinfection cycle over time, since this has a potentially very long incubation period? You will presumably always be around someone incubating or sick with it, in normal contact situations.
I also think the % of officials testing positive in Iran is not going to be an isolated phenomenon. world leaders are in a bind in terms of optics but doing face-to-face with almost anyone is a huge risk. a leader having foreign travel (say, to india) is such a crazy and uncontrolled risk I am dreading the day a headline about someone they met having it hits.
Most of those 245 have not resolved. Some will likely die.
But there is no value to anything Iran says, anyway. Ignore them. Watch Italy, Korea and Japan to get useful data.
Yep. Everyone I know that’s been to India comes down with something within weeks. My brother was over there and was excruciatingly careful. He was very sick in six days.
Yes exactly.
They, like nearly everyone else at this point, have very limited ability to test. So they are likely only testing probable cases like the very ill who seem to have the symptoms.
As of two days ago for instance the Philippines have tested only 570 people in the country, finding three cases, all Chinese nationals who had been hospitalized. This is not necessarily good news, as there could be any number of undetected infections because of such limited testing.
South Korea has tested over 30,000.
Korea’s numbers will be best. They are on top of it, testing 15k a day. They have just opened up a drive through testing facility.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.