The coronavirus, “causes more severe illness than flu, there are not yet any vaccines or therapeutics, and it can be contained — which is why we must do everything we can to contain it.”Another difference: Covid-19 generally seems to lead to more severe disease than seasonal flu strains, in part because people have no immune protection against the new virus . Flu infections generally kill “far fewer than 1% of those infected,” Tedros said, but as of now, about 3.4% of Covid-19 cases have been fatal. (The fatality rate for Covid-19 is considered preliminary, especially given that experts are not sure how many mild cases are going undetected by health systems.)
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Avigan influenza tablets, produced by Fujifilm Holdings Corp., are arranged for a photograph at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, on Monday, Oct. 27, 2014. Fujifilm, which makes the Avigan drug used as part of clinical trials in Ebola patients, said aid group Doctors Without Borders may use the drug among its experimental treatments. Photographer: Akio Kon/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Avigan influenza tablets, produced by Fujifilm Holdings Corp., are arranged for a photograph at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, on Monday, Oct. 27, 2014. Fujifilm, which makes the Avigan drug used as part of clinical trials in Ebola patients, said aid group Doctors Without Borders may use the drug among its experimental treatments. Photographer: Akio Kon/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesTablets of Avigan, developed and manufactured by Japanese drug maker Toyama Chemical Co., Ltd. , are seen at Fujifilm Holdings headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, on Monday, Oct. 27, 2014. Photographer: Akio Kon/ BloombergBased on results of clinical trials conducted with affected patients in both Wuhan and Shenzhen by Chinese medical authorities, Japanese-made flu drug favipiravir (also known as Avigan) has been shown to be effective in both reducing the duration of the COVID-19 virus in patients and to have improved the lung conditions of those who received treatment with the drug.
This virus is not SARS, it’s not MERS, and it’s not influenza,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a briefing Tuesday, referencing other coronaviruses that have caused smaller outbreaks. “It is a unique virus with unique characteristics.”
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Coronavirus Cases:
253,791
Deaths:
10,406
Recovered:
89,062
HEALTH
2,830,916 Communicable disease deaths this year
Sources and info:
Global Burden of Disease (GBD) – World Health Organization (WHO)
105,986 Seasonal flu deaths this year
1,657,558 Deaths of children under 5 this year
9,268,249 Abortions this year
67,403 Deaths of mothers during birth this year
41,649,447 HIV/AIDS infected people
366,588 Deaths caused by HIV/AIDS this year 1,790,988 Deaths caused by cancer this year 213,901 Deaths caused by malaria this year
Recovered: 0