HKUMed experts collaborated with the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention to study how SARS-CoV-2 was transmitted in 425 confirmed patients from Wuhan, China. Most of the cases were linked to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. The results were published in the highly esteemed New England Journal of Medicine.
Key takeaways from the study:
- The median age of these patients was 59 years.
- There were no cases below the age of 15 years old.
- The average time between infection to hospitalisation was 12.5 days.
- The average time for symptoms to appear after infection was 5.2 days.
- The time required for the number of infected cases to double was 7.4 days.
- Each patient on average was capable of spreading the infection to 2.2 other persons.
A delay to visiting the doctor or hospital makes identifying and isolating cases at an earlier stage of disease difficult. Providing tests in the clinics and emergency departments can limit the spread of the disease early. As this study showed that symptoms did not appear until after an average of 5.2 days, this provided the guidance that a 14-day medical observation or quarantine period for exposed individuals in the community would limit the spread of infection.
To read the original article published in The New England Journal of Medicine, click here.
