The Asia Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health (APACPH) humanviews with concern the emergence of a new strain of the corona virus group that infects humans. So far it does not appear to be as serious as the SARS virus, the most recent Corona virus to emerge. At the time of writing there have been about 12,000 cases with around 250 deaths, a case fatality rate of about 2%, substantially lower than SARS. However, it is too soon to know exactly what the specific parameters of the disease will be. At present there is no treatment or vaccine available. Health workers must rely on their traditional public health skills of diagnosis and case confirmation, case isolation and contact tracing. The member institutions of APACPH have long experience in teaching and putting these skills into practice. The APACPH Schools of Public Health stand ready to offer specific training when required to other health professionals.
Since the SARS and MERS outbreaks there have been rapid advances in molecular biology. The genetic sequence of the 2019-nCoV virus has already been sequenced. The Chinese government and international organizations have readily collaborated and made the sequence freely available. This means that if it proves possible to develop a vaccine it should be available for testing within 12 months. A lot of basic epidemiology will still have to be done to understand the nest ways to deploy the vaccine. In the meantime trials will continue to help us understand the best way of managing existing cases.
It is worth remembering that the WHO estimated that each year there are 3-5 million cases of influenza with 290000-650000 deaths. In epidemic years it is many more. While the new corona virus outbreak is very worrying because of all of the uncertainties that surround it, we need to remember that public health workers are faced with the challenges of combating infectious diseases every day.
The Schools of Public Health work through APACPH to provide education and research to assist in the constant battle against human infections.
